mallemaroking

The story

1. French · derived frommarotte“jester's sceptre”
2. English todaymallemaroking

Generally considered to derive from Dutch, although a specific etymon is unclear. Century and some other old dictionaries derive it from a confusion of two similar Dutch words, namely *mallemerok (“foolish woman”) (from malle (“foolish”) + *marok, from French marotte (“jester's sceptre”)) and *mallemok (“sailor of a whaling vessel”), but the first of those words is not attested, and the second is not attested with the claimed meaning (but see mollymawk). Compare mallemolen.

Words from the same roots