Shenanigans

Posted by David FG on September 22, 2009 at 18:08

In Reply to: Shenanigans posted by Victoria S Dennis on September 19, 2009 at 16:20:

: : Can you please throw some light over the origin of the word "shenanigans"? Does it have anything to do with the Hindi words senani gan?

: The origin is unknown, but as the word appears to have originated in mid-19th century California a Hindi origin is fairly unlikely. Plausible suggestions include:
: 1. Irish "sionnachuighm", meaning "play tricks"
: 2. Spanish "chanada," meaning "trick or deceit"
: 3. English dialect "nannicking", meaning "play the fool"
: (VSD)

It is possible that I could be wrong on this, as there might be places where something like 'sionnachuighm' means to play tricks, but it's not an Irish phrase I recognise.

I would use 'bob a bhualadh ar(dhuine)' if I wanted to say 'play tricks on(somebody)'.

DFG