I've just returned from a long weekend in Bologna, Italy, and there I learnt that the word baloney in baloney sandwich is named after the town, or rather, the sausage that was first made in Bologna.
Baloney sandwich is not a well-known term in the UK, but here there is a sausage called polony, and that word, too, comes from the word Bologna.
We use the word baloney, also spelt boloney, a lot in the UK, but it means 'poppycock' or 'nonsense'. The OED says that the link with Bologna is 'conjectural', but Jonathon Green in his Dictionary of Slang refers to Ramon Adams, author of Western Words, who says that Bologna bulls are animals of inferior quality, whose meat is used to make Bologna sausage. Presumably people found the sausages inferior or 'rubbish' too, and the nonsense sense perhaps comes from this connection. Eric Partridge in A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English has a different theory. He thinks that boloney/baloney comes from the Romany word pelone, meaning testicles, and refers to the analogy of balls, which is slang for both testicles and nonsense.
"Baloney" is also used as slang for "nonsense" here in the US. Sometimes the expression takes the form of "That's just so much phoney baloney". It does seem as though the usage of "balony" is waning in slang usage.
As a meat product, it is offered as "Bologna", but is pronounced "baloney". One of the leading producers here even pronounces it that way in its advertisements.
Posted by: John | September 28, 2011 at 01:00 AM
In some parts of northern Italy, "bologna" is a synonym for what we call "mortadella", which is somewhat different from American "bologna [sausage]".
There was an article in the Guardian on this a few days ago:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/25/in-praise-of-bologna-editorial
Posted by: Paolo | September 28, 2011 at 11:43 AM
Thanks to you both for your comment. Thanks for the link to the article, Paolo. I'd missed it. Some of the commentators' remarks are well worth reading.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | September 28, 2011 at 11:33 PM
I realise I am late to the party, but isn't the use of "baloney" to mean "nonsense" from "Blarney"?
Posted by: Lord Bowden | October 14, 2011 at 11:01 PM
The door to the party is always open, Lord Bowden! No, I don't think the two are related, despite the similar consonants and similarity in meaning.
Thanks for your comment, and come back soon!
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | October 15, 2011 at 07:24 PM