A.Word.A.Day --ballyhack

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Today's Word

Ballyhack

PRONUNCIATION:

(BAL-ee-hack)

MEANING:

noun: Hell.

ETYMOLOGY:

Of uncertain origin. Perhaps after the Irish village Ballyhack, where a castle was the holding place for confederates caught in a rebellion before they were expelled. Earliest documented use: 1843.

USAGE:

“‘But what about the Sorbonne?’
‘The Sorbonne can go to Ballyhack.’”
John Dos Passos; Three Soldiers; George H. Doran Company; 1921.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator. -Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones), schoolteacher, dressmaker, organizer, and activist (1 Aug 1837-1930)

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