Irish bull

The derivation of "bull" in this sense is unclear. It may be related to Old French boul "fraud, deceit, trickery", Icelandic bull "nonsense", Middle English bull "falsehood", or the verb bull "befool, mock, cheat". As the Oxford English Dictionary points out, the epithet "Irish" is a more recent addition, the original word bull for such nonsense having been traced back at least to the early 17th century. ==Examples==

• "He'll regret it till his dying day, if ever he lives that long." – "Red" Will Danaher, in The Quiet Man • "If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive." – Samuel Goldwyn, movie producer (1882–1974) • "Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours." – Misattributed to Yogi Berra, baseball player (1925–2015) • "There'll be people dying in this town who've never f---ing died before" – Belfast taxi driver • "to make an Irish bull, I should expect the next stage in Evolution not to be a stage in Evolution at all" – C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity ==See also==