shenanigan
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ʃɪˈnænɪɡ(ə)n/
ipa: /ʃəˈnænəɡən/
Forms: form: shenanigans
Etymology: The origin of the noun is uncertain. As the earliest attestations are from California, U.S.A., in the 1850s towards the end of the California gold rush (see the quotations), it is possible that the word derives from one of the following:
* Irish sionnachuighim (“to play tricks”, literally “to play the fox”); Irishmen were among the people participating in the gold rush. (See also the 31 December 1854 quotation suggesting it is an “Irish word”.)
* Spanish chanada, a shortening of charranada (“deceit, trick”); California was colonized by the Spanish Empire in the 18th century, and many people from Latin America also took part in the gold rush.
Other suggestions are set out in the table below.
possible etymologies
* From the East Anglian dialectal word nannicking (“playing the fool”).
* From French ces manigances (“these fraudulent schemes”).
* From German Scheinheilige (“sham holy men; sham holy actions”), scheinheilig (“hypocritical”) (18th c.)
* From Rhine Franconian schinägeln (“to work hard”), from the peddler’s argot term Schenigelei (“work”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: I spotted his next shenanigan—saw it coming—and so avoided being fooled.
text: He then would state some of the principles of the party; First of all he would have them know it was on the square! and why was it on the square? Why? Because it didn't intend to "come the shenanigan"—that was it!
ref: 1854 August 18, “First performance of the original Dolly Wags at Cayoteville”, in E. R. Budd, editor, The Nevada Journal, volume 4, number 16 (number 173 overall), Nevada City, Calif.: Budd & Skelton, →OCLC, page 1, column 5:
text: Abstrusus–In your answers to correspondence last week is given a definition to which I must except: An Irish word which you write ‘shenanigan’ is defined as being synonymous with our English word ‘humbug,’ thus depriving the natives of ‘the Breast-pin of the Ocean’ of the credit of great shrewdness in the use of the word.
ref: [1854 December 31, “Questions and answers”, in The Wide West, volume I, number 42, San Francisco, Calif.: Bonestell & Williston, →OCLC, page [2], column 1:
text: We have a host of eagle-eyed natives, who will stand by the polls, and see that no shenanigan is played.
ref: 1855 August 31, “Turn out Americans!!”, in E[dwin] G Waite, editor, The Nevada Journal, volume 5, number 18 (number 277 overall), Nevada City, Calif.: N. P. Brown & Co., →OCLC, page 2, column 2:
text: A longtime friend of [Ann] Richards and co-conspirator in many a shenanigan and act of political skulduggery, she [Liz Carpenter] had decided early in the fall to act on her conviction that something important had gone out of politics.
ref: 1992, Celia Morris, chapter 7, in Storming the Statehouse: Running for Governor with Ann Richards and Dianne Feinstein, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons; Don Mills, Ont.: Maxwell Macmillan Canada, →ISBN, page 148:
synonyms: word: caper
word: capriccio
word: curvet
word: gag
word: gambade
word: high jinks
word: lark
word: marlock
word: monkeyshine
word: practical joke
word: prank
word: prat
word: reak
word: rag
word: shenanigan
word: trick
word: windup
glosses: singular of shenanigans: a deceitful confidence trick; also, an act of mischief; a prank, a trick; an act of mischievous play, especially by children.
examples: text: One of Professor [John] Moon's most astonishing "experiments," consisted of holding a watch suspended from a short chain at arm's length, and allowing anyone in the pit to pull pistol and "blaze away" at the word "fire," whereupon the watch would most unconscionably disappear. An individual who had attended several evenings and witnessed the "experiment," suspected, in the classic language of the times, that there was something of "shenanigan" in it.
ref: 1855 September, “Mr. Soap’s Yachting Excursion”, in Yankee-notions, volume IV, number 9, New York, N.Y.: T. W. Strong, […], →OCLC, page 280, column 1:
text: There are stories still told how money was used and promised, but from the best knowledge I can acquire, I think this is not true. If sharp practice was played, and "shenanigan" was used, we, to-day, looking back upon those times, cannot say that evil has come of it.
ref: [1877], Cha[rle]s H. Sparks, “Political History”, in History of Winneshiek County, with Biographical Sketches of Its Eminent Men, Decorah, Iowa: Jas. Alex. Leonard, →OCLC, page 31:
glosses: Dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour; skulduggery, trickery; also, mischievous behaviour or play; high jinks.
Derived terms: word: shenaniganry
word: shenanigous