Hinky

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Tue, Feb 19, 2002 at 01:48:25PM -0500, Baker, John wrote:
>         Newsweek writer Allan Sloane used the word "hinky" in his Washington
> Post column today (which I believe may also run in other newspapers), at
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30466-2002Feb18.html:  "The
> recent panic in the market over anything that looks remotely like hinky
> accounting has produced more reform pressure in the two months since Enron
> filed for bankruptcy protection than former SEC chief Arthur Levitt Jr.
> could generate in eight years of fighting on behalf of investors."
>
> The term is not in the OED, but according to SlangSite.com it means
> "Something that is out of whack, incorrect, just a bit off, wrong, confused,
> suspect."

You'll find this in the HDAS with a first citation of 1956. Also cf.
_hincty_ in HDAS with a first example (in this sense) of 1929 (the sense
'snobbish; haughty' is attested from 1924); perhaps these are the
same word.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED