Shenanigans are Afoot on Dictionarium!
Fall 2020 & Spring 2021
This is not an actual feature article for a real show, the “show” is a one-off project I did for my “Theories of Writing” class, where we had to do a bit of research on a word and share it with our class. The class was our introduction to the theories behind writing and asking all kinds of questions about the history and mechanics of writing.
For this portfolio, my professor challenged us to take a piece of ours and expand on it, jumping to a different genre of writing that relates to the original project. So I used my avatar’s name (more on her over on the About page) and wrote a feature article about myself.
Consider this article purely fictitious, I made most of these quotes or titles up on the spot as I was writing this. I used real facts from my life where appropriate, but I fantasized others. I’m very sorry if I used a real title or name, I am not podcast savvy.
-Article is below.
-Original podcast is below the article as a playable track called “Audiocast.” (Yes the audio quality changes, forgive me, this was my first time recording.)
-Works cited and transcript of the podcast is below both the article and podcast as a PDF called “Audiocast Transcript”.
Shenanigans are Afoot on Dictionarium!
By Dracia 05-09-2021 3 MIN READ
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Elizabeth Denfeld likes her eggs on the ceiling.
Not really, she doesn’t enjoy eggs at all, but when it comes to hiding Easter eggs, there are no limits to where she will put them. The egg in question was hidden inside an empty light-fixture for her brother to find during Easter 2020, which was—as per her family’s egg-hiding rules—out in plain sight.
The incident—of which we only get a minute thirty out of eight minutes—is used as an example of a shenanigan, which Elizabeth then uses to jump into a brief educational podcast on the etymology (studying the origins of words and how their meanings change throughout history) of the word, giving people a chance to learn after they’ve had a chance to laugh!
When I was able to catch Elizabeth for a quick chat, I had to ask her what drove her to start this and why she chose shenanigan to lead the charge with. Surely she’d want to choose a more “respectable” word?
“If I’m going to go out of my comfort zone like this I’m not going to make it any harder than I have to. Let’s get past the struggle of making a podcast before I get into the struggle of researching words I have no drive for or interest in.”
Fair point. You don’t see me making podcasts, I choose to sit ‘n listen and then write about them.
“But in all seriousness, I really like learning new words and learning new things about words I use,”
Elizabeth admitted,
“even just getting clarification on what words I love to use actually mean. I figured that maybe other people would share that sentiment, and then I had to do shenanigans first, because that is one of my favorites, if not my all-time favorite word.”
To summarize (because you should really go and give it a listen), and to take a leaf from Elizabeth’s book and reference the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Shenanigan, plural: Shenanigans.
1: a devious trick used especially for an underhand purpose
2a: tricky or questionable practices or conduct —usually used in plural
b: high-spirited or mischievous activity —usually used in plural
Definition 1 is a tad outdated, but etymology is all about history so it certainly can’t be forgotten. Speaking of etymology, did you know that there’s no definite root word or group of root words for shenanigan? It’s true!
“When I started this, I thought it was going to be a really cut-and-dry, “it comes from this, which was changed by this event” kind of thing, not that a word I love to use has a MIA history!”
But she was able to find that the first use of the word appeared in print in San Francisco’s Town Talk on April 25, 1855. San Francisco, California. What were the big events happening in California back then?
I actually didn’t know, but Elizabeth sure does: The California Gold Rush!
“Think about it. The gold rushes brought in people from across the world, from all walks of life and many different languages. It’s one of the reasons that California is as diverse as it is today. So words that pop up in this time where there’s innumerable mixings and borrowings of language aren’t the easiest to suss out in terms of their origin.”
But Elizabeth sure did give it her best shot, pulling up six contestants coming from across the world:
Sionnachuighim: Irish; “I play the fox”
Nannicking: East Anglican dialect; “playing the fool”
Ces Manigances: French; “these fraudulent schemes”
Scheinheiligen: 18 century German; “sham holy man / sham holy action”
Chanada, a shortened form of charranada: Spanish; trick or deceit
Chhaneda: Indian; deceit, usually used for spirits who change their shapes.
My money is on Scheinheiligen. It's nearly as fun to say as shenanigan!
“Gotta say I disagree, were I a bet-er, I’d bet it’s a mix of sionnachuighim and nannicking.”
But, the odds are that neither of us will ever cash in those bets, since shenanigans are afoot with shenanigan’s etymology.
Dictionarium only has a single entry at the moment, but once there’s more it promises it will be a collection of five minute and under lessons on all sorts of wacky and wonderful words, which will be alphabetized for the curious listener’s convenience. Elizabeth hopes to find fun little stories to share with each installment, which I hope will share more of the shenanigans she and her brothers get up to.