[Ads-l] shenanegin antedated (?) to 1854

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Jul 5 16:20:01 UTC 2015


I don't think I've ever encountered a singular shenanigan.  (Aren't they like Lay's potato chips?)  Interesting transitive "come" in the cite too; I suppose if you can come a cropper, you can "come a shenanegan".

LH

> On Jul 5, 2015, at 11:03 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> OED has shenanigan from 1855, "Origin obscure." The question mark in the subject line indicates that I did not check all the many known spellings in every likely-suspect place. I think this antedates ads-l archive and several other sites. Green's I don't have at hand. HDAS vol. with S, even less at hand.
> 
> 
> The newspaper reports on a suspected murder. Two men fought, apparently a money dispute; both lost blood; one died of a knife wound. The incident was reported in Daily Placer Times and Transcript, San Francisco CA, "Death of Mr. Way Inquest," July 31, 1854 page 2 col. 1. [Am. Hist. N.]
> 
> Then on August 3, 1854 the same newspaper p. 2 col. 3 reported "Examination of H. B. Atkins," the accused murderer. It reports the testimony of a witness (name not reported), called by the defence, after some others attested to Atkins' "excellent character," "who swore that he saw Way about 7 o'clock, on Saturday evening [the night of the killing], and was hailed by him; Way told him that he had just had another fuss with Atkins, and that he was now going around again; he thought that Atkins wanted to come the "shenanegin" over him....
> 
> 
> Stephen Goranson
> 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__people.duke.edu_-7Egoranson_&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=4ezUzkCbjCXkY34UjL0vPNXDTMcHuKXNLaISLHqP18A&s=o8IfgtqhJB6O42c7HsIoqIV3b41px4nEcUNbBVBVRp4&e= 
> 
> 
> 
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