Finagle
Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 10:11 pm
One of my sons visiting today used the word, and I thought it sounded interesting. Etymology Online says this: finagle (v.)
1926, American English, possibly a variant of English dialectal fainaigue "to cheat or renege" (at cards), of unknown origin. Liberman says finagle is from figgle, phonetic variant of fiddle "fidget about," frequentative of fig. Related: Finagled; finagling.
That brought to mind a variant I used to hear frequently, finnig or finiggle, to rhyme with renigue, possibly as a varient for fainaigue. We also used finiggle that seemed to me less pejorative and meaning to figure out some way to get something or do something.
1926, American English, possibly a variant of English dialectal fainaigue "to cheat or renege" (at cards), of unknown origin. Liberman says finagle is from figgle, phonetic variant of fiddle "fidget about," frequentative of fig. Related: Finagled; finagling.
That brought to mind a variant I used to hear frequently, finnig or finiggle, to rhyme with renigue, possibly as a varient for fainaigue. We also used finiggle that seemed to me less pejorative and meaning to figure out some way to get something or do something.