yannigan bag (lumberjack term): Is it actually attested anywhere in context?

Gerald Cohen gcohen at UMR.EDU
Thu Jan 2 04:08:29 UTC 2003


     Is the term "yannigan" (lumberjack's carpetbag) attested in
context anywhere? Wentworth and Flexner's _Dictionary of American
Slang_ say that "yannigan" ( =baseball rookie; obsolete) derives from
"yannigan bag." And under "yannigan bag" they say: "A home-made or
carpet bag in which loggers, prospectors, and traveling performers
used to carry their possessions. Obsolete."

     Meanwhile, Paul Dickson (The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary,
1999) reports that James Stevens (American Speech, Dec. 1925)
suggested that the word was born in American lumber camps: "Like such
old terms as 'cross cut,' 'bitted,' yannigan,' and 'snubline' they
had the ringing life of the timber in them."'

      I don't find "yannigan (bag)" in the Oxford English Dictionary.
(Reason: ?).
Is it anywhere else? For easy access, below my signoff I reproduce
part of Paul Dickson's treatment of baseball "yannigan."

Gerald Cohen

[from the New Dickson Baseball Dictionary]:
   ...Etymology:  The term appears in other slang contexts; e.g. The
"yannigan bags" that lumberjacks, prospectors, and others used to
carry their clothing.  Joseph McBride (High and Inside, 1980) states
that the baseball term derived from the carpetbag, and was a
reference to the disreputability of rookies and subs.  McBride adds:
"According to Lee Allen, Jerry Denny, a third baseman for Providence
in 1884, was responsible for dumping the name 'yannigan' on rookies."
There is no clear link between this term and a word in another
language or an earlier form of English or an English dialect; e.g.,
no word close to "yannigan" appears in John S. Farmer and W.E.
Henley's Slang and Its Analogues (1905).  James Stevens (American
Speech, Dec. 1925) suggested that the word was born in American
lumber camps: "Like such old terms as 'cross cut,' 'bitted,'
yannigan,' and 'snubline' they had the ringing life of the timber in
them."'



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