Blarney

Means persuasive flattery and derives from the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in Ireland. Legend has it that kissing the Blarney Stone endows one with the gift of the gab. The expression received wide currency in the late 18th century with the publication of Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield in 1766, in which a character named Lady Blarney was depicted as a smooth-talking flatterer. Ireland is sometimes referred to as ‘Blarney land’ in testimony to the persuasive flattery exhibited by its inhabitants.