finif (was Re: jitney 1912 etc.)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/17/2009 01:28 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

>I always took "finif" to be  Yiddish. Lessee...
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>
>http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fin
>
>fin ... U.S. underworld slang sense of "$5 bill" is 1925, from Yiddish
>finif "five," from Ger. fünf. The same word had been used in England
>1868 to mean "five pound note" (earlier finnip, 1839).
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Filched by the gonoph, no doubt.

Joel

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