> Now if you'll give me the etymology for cocktail and cockamamie, I'll
> be on my way...


Cockamamie, it says here -

" "cockamamie" actually sprang from one of the great popular fads of
the 19th century, now long forgotten. "Decalcomania," from the French
for "tracing craze," was the practice of transferring colored designs
to the skin from damp paper -- what we call today "decals" or
"temporary tattoos." The "mania" began in France in the mid-1800s, and
quickly became the rage among children everywhere. As a harmless but
immensely silly fad, "decalcomania," and its linguistic offspring
"cockamamie," came to mean something so transparently phony or absurd
(as in "cockamamie alibi") that one ought to doubt the sanity of the
source."



And cocktail:

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcocktail.html



And Little Black Sambo, fully illustrated!

http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/sambo.htm










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