the.com/hogwash
Originally pig slop, now what politicians feed you instead of answers.
means Nonsense or empty talk meant to fill space without saying anything true.
from Literally the slop fed to hogs — kitchen scraps and dishwater boiled down into pig feed. By the 1700s English speakers had stretched 'hogwash' to mean any worthless, watered-down drivel, the logic being that bad writing or bad talk was fit only for the trough.
- literal origin
- actual kitchen scraps boiled for feeding hogs
- semantic drift
- worthless swill became worthless talk by 1800s
- synonym cousin
- related in spirit to balderdash and poppycock