What does bologna mean?
Bologna is a cooked, smoked sausage with a smooth, even texture, made from finely ground beef and pork and typically sold pre-sliced for sandwiches. Named after the Italian city of Bologna, where similar sausages such as mortadella have been produced for centuries, it became a staple of American lunch counters and school lunchboxes in the twentieth century. The word carries a distinctly everyday, nostalgic connotation in the United States, evoking inexpensive comfort food rather than gourmet cuisine. Its pronunciation gave rise to the informal respelling 'baloney,' which took on a life of its own as a term for nonsense or insincere talk — so a speaker might dismiss an implausible story as 'a bunch of baloney' while still enjoying an actual bologna sandwich. The related adjective Bolognese refers to the cuisine of Bologna, including the famous meat sauce served with pasta.
nounA smooth-textured cooked smoked sausage made of finely ground meat (traditionally beef and pork), originating from Bologna, Italy. In American English, it is commonly eaten sliced in sandwiches.
- A smooth, cooked, smoked sausage made from finely ground meat, typically sold in slices.
- In American English via the variant 'baloney': nonsense or worthless talk (figurative extension).
"He packed a bologna sandwich for his lunch every day of grade school."
"The deli clerk stacked thin slices of bologna behind the glass case."
""That explanation is pure baloney," she said, refusing to accept the excuse."
Usually treated as an uncountable foodstuff; a plural form is rare, though 'bolognas' occasionally appears when referring to multiple whole sausages or varieties.
"The deli stocked several different bolognas, from garlic to smoked."
Americans say 'baloney' but the word actually comes from Bologna, Italy — the same city that gave us Bolognese sauce.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bologna
The word bologna comes from the Italian city of Bologna, whose Latin name was Bononia, adopting the pattern of naming foods after their place of origin. It entered English in the nineteenth century as a name for a sausage styled after the cured meats of that region, particularly mortadella. The common American variant 'baloney' arose as an informal phonetic spelling reflecting how the word was actually pronounced, and by the early twentieth century 'baloney' had developed its figurative sense of nonsense. A true culinary cognate is Bolognese, the adjective describing dishes from Bologna.
Related word forms
How bologna is actually used
In American English the spelling pronunciation 'bologna' is often altered to 'baloney,' which has become a separate word meaning nonsense. Outside North America the sausage is better known by its Italian relative mortadella.
Easily confused with bologna
'Baloney' is a phonetic respelling of 'bologna' used both as a name for the sausage and, figuratively, to mean nonsense or foolish talk.