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

[Benjamin Barrett]

No antedatings, but a few citations suggesting the word is from miners 
in California. Also, a couple of toponyms, which might be where the 
original shenanigan happened, or which might be named after the word was 
in currency. Last, a person "commonly called Shenanigan."

1. http://bit.ly/1S1NGHC
Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually 
Regarded ...
By John Russell Bartlett
Google dated: 1877
Lists "shenanigan" as a word in California and Yale College

2. http://bit.ly/1S1NUyz
Americanisms: The English of the New World
By Maximilian Schele de Vere
Google dated: 1872
Lists "shenannigan" as "probably a purely fictitious word ... frequently 
heard in the South and the West, and denoting groundless bragging for 
the purpose of getting the better of another."

3. http://bit.ly/1ffN852
Camp and Cabin: Sketches of Life and Travel in the West
Rossiter Worthington Raymond
Googled dated: 1880
("Shenannigan" is the miner's term for humbug.)

4. http://bit.ly/1Tfmp72
The War of the Rebellion: Formal reports, both Union and Confederate, of 
the ....
United States. War Dept, Robert Nicholson Scott
Google dated: 1971
"May 15, 1864, Sergeant Byrnes with a detachment of four men returned to 
camp from Shinanigan Mountain, having scouted on Kushka's for five days 
without discovering any traces of the Indians.... between Bear River and 
the North Fork of Mattole."

5. http://bit.ly/1KJoNA5
Blog comment by Laura Cooskey
19 July 2011
Buck Miner's "The Origin of Mattole" has a story on p. 103 about the 
name of Bunnel Prairie Creek. He says Mr. Bunnel (no first name) was the 
blacksmith in a location between Upper Mattole and Honeydew who took in 
the orphaned survivor of the Squaw Creek massacre, who then, via Mike 
Schallard of Shenanigan Ridge, ended up in Bear River area adopted by 
the Morrison family.

6. http://bit.ly/1IDPPc7
Shenanigan Campground, perhaps in Yuba County, CA

7. http://bit.ly/1H2mmE9
Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zool?ogy at Harvard College, Volume 6
Front Cover
Harvard University. Museum of Comparative Zoology
Google dated: 1880
Immediate opposite Spanish Dry Diggings, on the other side of the river, 
at a place known as Shenanigan Hill, ....

8. http://bit.ly/1HGQdpt
Annual Report
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey
Google dated: 1911
Chaparral Mountain (Humboldt County, Cal. A. F. R., 1871).--On what is 
called the Shenanigan Hill, a peak of the Punta Gorda Ridge.

9. http://bit.ly/1giFZ4c
Congressional Series of United States Public Documents, Volume 2027
U.S. Government Printing Office
Google dated: 1882
I seized from the man commonly called Shenanigan, on barrel of mash, ....


Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home
> ADSGarson O'Toole <mailto:adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> July 5, 2015 at 12:56 PM
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header 
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: shenanegin antedated (?) to 1854
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here is another example of "shenanigan" from 1855. This is later than
> Stephen's cite and the first OED cite, but it might still be useful.
>
> Date: September 1855
> Journal: Yankee-Notions
> Volume 4, number 9
> Article: The Magician and the Miner
> Quote Page 280
> Publisher: T. W. Strong, New York
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> An individual who had attended several evenings and witnessed the
> "experiment," suspected, in the classic language of the times, that
> there was something of "shenanigan" in it. He thought the probability
> was, that the individual in the pit who fired the pistol was
> invariably an accomplice, dressed for the nonce in miner's clothes;
> and as a true, independent, self-reliant Californian, he thought he
> would assume the responsibility of testing and adjusting matters for
> his own satisfaction, as well as for the good of the community
> generally.
> [End excerpt]
>
>
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