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Origin and history of shenanigan

shenanigan(n.)

"nonsense; deceit, humbug," 1855, American English slang, of uncertain origin. Earliest records of it are in California (San Francisco and Sacramento). Suggestions include Spanish chanada, a shortened form of charranada "trick, deceit;" or, less likely, German Schenigelei, peddler's argot for "work, craft," or the related German slang verb schinäglen. Another guess centers on Irish sionnach "fox," and the form is perhaps conformed to an Irish surname.

also from 1855

Entries linking to shenanigan

shenanigans(n.)

see shenanigan.

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    mischief
    c. 1300, "evil condition, misfortune; hardship, need, want; wickedness, wrongdoing, evil," from Old French meschief "misfortune, harm, trouble; annoyance, vexation" (12c., Modern French méchef), verbal noun from meschever "come or bring to grief, be unfortunate" (opposite of achi
    chicanery
    c. 1610s, "legal quibbling, sophistry, mean or petty tricks," from French chicanerie "trickery," from chicaner "to pettifog, quibble" (15c.), which is of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle Low German schikken "to arrange, bring about," or from the name of a golf-like game once p
    chicane
    a word used in English in various senses, including "act of chicanery, art of gaining advantage by using evasions or cheating tricks" (1670s), also "obstacles on a roadway" (by 1935), also a term in bridge (1880s), apparently all ultimately from an archaic verb chicane "to trick"
    katzenjammer
    The strip was temporarily de-Germanized during World War I: "THE SHENANIGAN KIDS" is the new American name for the original...
    deception
    early 15c., decepcioun, "act of misleading, a lie, a falsehood," from Old French déception (13c., decepcion) or directly from Late Latin deceptionem (nominative deceptio) "a deceiving," noun of state or action from past-participle stem of Latin decipere "to ensnare, take in, begu
    guile
    mid-12c., from Old French guile "deceit, wile, fraud, ruse, trickery," probably from Frankish *wigila "trick, ruse" or a related Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *wih-l- (source also of Old Frisian wigila "sorcery, witchcraft," Old English wig "idol," Gothic weihs "holy," Ger
    humbug
    1751, in Oxford and Cambridge student slang, "a trick, jest, hoax, imposition, deception," a word of unknown origin; it also appeared simultaneously as a transitive verb, "deceive by false pretext." A vogue word of the early 1750s; its origin was a subject of much whimsical specu
    dissimulation
    late 14c., dissimulacioun, "concealment of reality under a diverse or contrary appearance," from Old French dissimulation (12c.) and directly from Latin dissimulationem (nominative dissimulatio) "a disguising, concealment, dissembling," noun of action from past-participle stem of
    deceit
    c. 1300, "trickery, treachery, lying," from Old French deceite, fem. past participle of deceveir, decevoir, from Latin decipere "to ensnare, take in, beguile, cheat," from de "from" or pejorative (see de-) + capere "to take," from PIE root *kap- "to grasp." From mid-14c. as "act
    put-on
    "ruse, deception," 1937, from earlier adjectival meaning "assumed, feigned" (1620s), a figurative extension of the verbal phrase on the notion of putting on costumes or disguises. To put on (v.), of clothes, garments, etc., is by early 15c.; see from put (v.) + on (adv.). Hence "

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