[Ads-l] "Finagle's Law" Not in OED or Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

Fri Feb 14 23:56:24 UTC 2025

Nice work, Stephen and Fred.
Below is a March 8, 1922 instance of "finagler" within a compendium of
slang. The OED does not have a separate entry for finagler, but this
instance of finagler fits the "dishonest or devious" sense of finagle.

[Begin OED excerpt]
finagle, v.
intransitive. To use dishonest or devious methods to bring something
about; to fiddle. Also transitive, to 'wangle', to scheme, to get
(something) by . . .
[End OED excerpt]

Date: March 8, 1922
Newspaper: Atlantic City Daily Press
Newspaper Location: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Article: FLAPPERANTO - 'AS SHE IS SPOKE' (Continued from Page One)
Quote Page 16, Column 6
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-of-atlantic-city-finagler/165500928/

[Begin excerpt]
FINAGLER-A young man who stalls until some one else pays the check.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 6:41 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> Stephen's "phenagle" find seems like a legitimate antedating to me, just a spelling variant.
>
> Here's a 1924 occurrence of the "finagle" spelling:
>
> finagle (OED 1926)
>
> 1924 Hamilton (Ohio) Journal News 29 Oct. 4/3 (Newspapers.com)
>
> It seems that finagling — a as in ache, please — isn't what Dr. Vizetelly the lexicographer said it was at all. ... A finagler, however, is one who continually tries to cheat.  "Quite [sic] finagling wath [sic] those cards" is an example quoted by Mr. Selzer.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <0000179d4093b2d6-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2025 4:36 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "Finagle's Law" Not in OED or Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
>
> Fwiw, perhaps an antedating of finagle v.l. (OED & Greens1926; M-W 1924)
> June 1922, The Fordham (College) Monthly, 555, GB.
>
> "Come, come, Sir Wizard, doubtless thou dost jest, but I cannot phenagle with the, already the check room is crowded..."
>
> sg
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2025 3:27 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "Finagle's Law" Not in OED or Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
>
> The excerpt below from the April 1958 article mentions the connection
> to John W. Campbell Jr.
>
> [Begin excerpt - double-check for typos]
> Over the years a series of laws have evolved. The laws actually
> represent a distillation of experience of thousands of experimenters,
> but (until Dr. Finagle came along) they were never recorded for the
> study and edification of younger members of our profession because
> they had no derivation - no proof. They are true because they have
> always been true. Look into your own experience and see if this is not
> so.
>
> We are grateful to John W. Campbell, Jr., editor of Astounding Science
> Fiction, for bringing this work to our attention, and to the many
> readers of that magazine who collected and contributed samples so that
> others might share in their experience.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 3:02 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > The April 1958 article is called "Finagle's Laws", and it lists a
> > variety of laws. Here are the four numbered laws; plus a creed and a
> > motto.
> >
> > Date: April 21, 1958
> > Periodical: Product Engineering
> > Article title: FINAGLE'S LAWS . . . or why nothing in Research and
> > Development happens the way it should
> > Quote Page 31 and 32
> > Publisher McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, New York
> > Database: Internet Archive
> >
> > https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fsim_product-engineering_1958-04-21_29_16%2Fpage%2F32%2Fmode%2F2up%3Fq%3DFinagle__%3B!!OToaGQ!oEBOa0raeqCmwZs11_j5ccNIoLfCGbdmw_Hyw-ImdoWhZICv-aXK7JHm7-Lr2uTM7fS6xNprPiX3XniWGDv99st_1w%24&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C8248607f9d614cf9362308dd4d3fb3a9%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638751658182708784%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=yZuGigypSttgEDrIy3Ib7qYJnhlIiK71nEabwtmSKlw%3D&reserved=0<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://archive.org/details/sim_product-engineering_1958-04-21_29_16/page/32/mode/2up?q=Finagle__;!!OToaGQ!oEBOa0raeqCmwZs11_j5ccNIoLfCGbdmw_Hyw-ImdoWhZICv-aXK7JHm7-Lr2uTM7fS6xNprPiX3XniWGDv99st_1w$>
> >
> > [Begin excerpt - double-check for typos]
> > ON EXPERIMENTS
> > The first four laws are the only one dignified by number. Note the
> > beauty and simplicity of the First Law. Also note that the remaining
> > three laws refer to men's reactions to Nature - not to Nature itself.
> >
> > First Law: If anything can go wrong with an experiment, it will
> >
> > Second Law: No matter what result is anticipated, there is always
> > someone willing to fake it
> >
> > Third Law: No matter what the result, there is always someone eager to
> > misinterpret it.
> >
> > Fourth Law: No matter what occurs, there is always someone who
> > believes it happened according to his pet theory.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > [Begin excerpt - double-check for typos]
> > Finagle's Creed: Science is Truth -  don't be misled by facts.
> > Finagle's Motto: Smile – tomorrow it will be worse.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> > <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Interesting topic, Fred. Harold Faber's reference book "The Book of
> > > Laws" lists two different versions of Finagle's Law together with
> > > citations. I have not double-checked the citations.
> > >
> > > [ref] 1979, The Book of Laws, Compiled by Harold Faber, Chapter 9: The
> > > Laws of Science and Technology, Quote Page 95, Times Books, New York.
> > > (Verified with hardcopy) [/ref]
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt]
> > > FINAGLE'S LAW (1)
> > > Once a job has been fouled up, anything done to improve it makes it worse.
> > > (Quoted by Brooks Atkinson, in The New York Times, February 1, 1961.)
> > >
> > > FINAGLE'S LAW (2)
> > > If anything can go wrong with an experiment, it will.
> > > (Quoted by Gunter Cohn, in Plating magazine, requoting from Product
> > > Engineering, April 21, 1958.)
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > > Garson
> > >
> > > On Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 1:18 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I don't see "Finagle's Law" in either OED or the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.  This is often said to have been coined by legendary science fiction editor John W. Campbell.  I don't know of any specific citation to Campbell.  The earliest I find in a few minutes of searching is 1958 (Nuclear Engineering, Dec. 1958, from Internet Archive).
> > > >
> > > > Fred Shapiro
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
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