"fanelights"

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:15 AM -0700 10/1/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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

This reminds me of another set of kids'
expressions that didn't exactly involve games,
but more like rituals.  One in NYC (early 1950s)
was "frontsies-backsies" (when you were waiting
"on line", as we called it, and allowed someone
in line ahead of you--since it was illicit to let
them in line behind you--and then you traded
places, whence also "No frontsies-backsies" from
those in back of you in the line, who were
thereby pushed back a place.

Another was "black black no backs", when you gave
someone something you didn't want and then
touched something black to eliminate the
possibility of their returning it to you.  Sort
of like the opposite of Indian giver.

LH

>
>Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the
>mail header -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Lynne Murphy
>Subject: "fanelights"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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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