"fanelights"

[Jonathan Lighter]

In NYC in the '50s I sometimes heard "fins !" in precisely the general sense indicated in the 1870 quot.  The fingers of each hand were crossed as an accompanying visual signal.

  At the time I thought the crossed fingers somehow represented fish's fins.  That didn't make any sense either, but what the heck.  But usually kids just said, "Wait a minute !" or "Time out !"  (Possibly also "Truce !" but I couldn't swear to this.)

  JL

Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Lynne Murphy
Subject: "fanelights"
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Off-list, I've been directed to _fain v2_ in the OED, which says:

= FEN v.2 Used in the expression fains or fain(s I, fain it, fainit(e)s:
see quots.
1870 N. & Q. 4th Ser. VI. 415/2 ‘Fains’, or ‘Fain it’A term demanding a
‘truce’ during the progress of any game, which is always granted by the
opposing party. Ibid. 517/1 A boy who had ‘killed’ another at marbles, that
is hit his marble, would call out ‘Fain it’, meaning ‘You mustn't shoot at
me in return’; or if a boy was going to shoot, and some inequality of
surface was in his way, which he would have cleared away, his antagonist
would prevent him by calling out ‘Fain clears’. Ibid. 517/2 If a prefect
wants anything fetched for him and does not say by whom, those who wish to
get off going say ‘Fain I’. 1889 BARRÈRE & LELAND Dict. Slang, Faints
[sic], in vogue among schoolboys to express a wish temporarily to withdraw
from participation in the particular sport or game being played. 1891
FARMER Slang, Fains! Fainits! Fain it! 1913 C. MACKENZIE Sinister St. I. I.
vii. 103 He could shout ‘fain I’ to be rid of an obligation and ‘bags I’ to
secure an advantage. 1927 W. E. COLLINSON Contemp. English 14 The custom of
putting oneself out of the game altogether by crossing the fingers and
saying pax! or faynights! [feinaits] or both together. 1948 J. BETJEMAN
Coll. Poems (1958) 150 ‘I'd rather not.’ ‘Fains I.’ ‘It's up to you.’ 1960
Guardian 1 July 9/7 The Englishman..could remain absolutely pax and
fainites. 1969 I. & P. OPIE Children's Games i. 18 This rule is so embedded
in children's minds that their immediate response to the proposal of a game
is to cry out..‘Me fains first’. Ibid., He must safeguard himself by saying
in one gulp, ‘Let's-play-Tig-fains-I-be-on-it’.

Thanks very much!

Lynne
Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer and Head of Department
Linguistics and English Language
Arts B133
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

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