Shenanigans

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