[Ads-l] "Finagle's Law" Not in OED or Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
Amy West
medievalist at W-STS.COM
Mon Feb 17 21:31:23 UTC 2025
And y'all noticed that fun (nonce?) blend "Flapperanto" in the title of
the article? Nice use of -anto from Esperanto as a combining form.
(Heck, am I using that term correctly?)
---Amy West
On 2/15/25 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2025 18:56:24 -0500
> From: ADSGarson O'Toole<adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: "Finagle's Law" Not in OED or Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
>
> 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
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list