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

[Alice Faber]

I have some of my father's papers and notes, but I don't know if they go 
that far back. I'll check the boxes I have after lunch.


On 2/14/25 1:33 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole 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
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org