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“As my wife and I plotted our annual family road trip, I made my pitch: A cemetery tour of the Midwest! It would be fun! … ‘It’s cemetery summer,’ I whispered and pumped my fist. A few days after my wife agreed to the plan, I found an even more willing audience for my cockamamie scheme.” — Will McGrath, The New York Times, 20 Aug. 2026

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By the look and sound of it, cockamamie (also spelled cockamamy) could have something to do with a rooster and the outrageous sound it makes. But in fact, cockamamie is believed to be an altered form of the term decalcomania, which refers to the process, invented in the mid-19th century, of transferring pictures and designs from specially prepared paper to surfaces such as glass or porcelain. (The word referring to the picture or design itself, decal, is a shortening of decalcomania.) The word decalcomania comes from French, with décalcomanie combining the verb décalquer, meaning “to trace" or "to transfer by tracing,” and -manie, meaning “-mania.” Starting in the 1930s, painted strips of paper with images capable of being transferred to the skin were called decals or—in children’s slang—cockamamies. Those familiar with today’s temporary tattoos will understand quickly that these were regarded by many as silly novelties, lending the word cockamamie the necessary leeway for application to anything ridiculous.