shenanigan means dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour; skulduggery, trickery; also, mischievous behaviour or play; high jinks. It carries an Arena rating of 1673, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, shenanigan ranks #241 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #312 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #779 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,066 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words.
shenanigan is pronounced /ʃɪˈnænɪɡ(ə)n/.
Why “shenanigan” is a great word
Dishonest trickery or mischievous high jinks. Its origin is uncertain, first attested in 1850s California, possibly from the Irish sionnachuighim ("to play tricks," literally "to play the fox") or the Spanish chanada, a shortening of charranada ("deceit, trick"). Unlike a "prank," which is a single, often harmless, caprice, or "fraud," which denotes grave, material deception, a shenanigan occupies the murky middle ground between innocence and guile. It is the rigged shell game at a dusty carnival, the saloon keeper's thumb on the scale, the whispered conspiracy of children plotting to raid the cookie jar—the warmth of laughter masking the cool slip of something being quietly, delightfully, taken.
Etymology
The origin of the noun is uncertain. As the earliest attestations are from California, U.S.A., in the 1850s towards the end of the California gold rush (see the quotations), it is possible that the word derives from one of the following: * Irish sionnachuighim (“to play tricks”, literally “to play the fox”); Irishmen were among the people participating in the gold rush. (See also the 31 December 1854 quotation suggesting it is an “Irish word”.) * Spanish chanada, a shortening of charranada (“deceit, trick”); California was colonized by the Spanish Empire in the 18th century, and many people from Latin America also took part in the gold rush. Other suggestions are set out in the table below. possible etymologies * From the East Anglian dialectal word nannicking (“playing the fool”). * From
noun
- Dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour; skulduggery, trickery; also, mischievous behaviour or play; high jinks.
verb
- To play a deceitful confidence trick on (someone); to swindle, to trick; also, to carry out an act of mischief on (someone); to prank.
- To play a deceitful confidence trick; also, to carry out an act of mischief.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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