Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Cockamamie

I was looking for a silly word for this week because it's all been tooooo serious for tooooo long out in the real world, so cockamamie it is!

In my mind, I hear my mother saying this word with great scorn in her voice. So, now I'm wondering: How far back does it date? 

Let's check it out!

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The definition of cockamamie is "mixed-up, ridiculous, implausible," according to The Online Etymological Dictionary. This source goes on to say:

American English slang word attested by 1946, popularized c. 1960, but said to be New York City children's slang from mid-1920s; perhaps an alteration of decalcomania (see decal). There is a 1945 recorded use of the word apparently meaning a kind of temporary tattoo used by children.

Wow, that's a strange connection! And, given that my mother was born in the 1920s, it makes sense it would pop up in her vocabulary. 

World Wide Words agrees (with some reservation) with OED, providing a connection to Brooklyn:

The link between decalcomania and cockamamie isn’t proved, but the evidence suggests strongly that children in New York City in the 1930s (or perhaps a decade earlier) converted the one into the other. There was a fashion for self-decoration at that period, using coloured transfers given away with candy and chewing gum. Shelly Winters wrote of cockamamie in The New York Times in 1956 that “This word, translated from the Brooklynese, is the authorized pronunciation of decalcomania. Anyone there who calls a cockamamie a decalcomania is stared at.

(Quick question to myself: Have I used cockamamie in my fiction? Quick check-and-answer: No! ... Good thing, because my series takes place from 1879 to the 1880s. I see that decalcomania, on the other hand, was part of the U.S. lexicon by 1865. Hmmmm.)

Cockamamie may be relatively new, but decalcomania goes waaay back!
By H. Wilson - appeared in Trow's New York City Directory, 1870
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69889168

ADDENDUM:

And thanks to Liz, I can offer you "Cockamamie Business" by George Harrison for your listening pleasure!