Megan's Words of the Week

Rapscallion:

The first word that I chose was one I found while reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Rapscallion was used by Twain multiple times throughout the novel, and my English professor even highlighted the word as relating to important themes in the novel. I think this is a really cool word and definitely can be applied not only to Huck Finn, but also to my new 8-week old puppy, who I learned this weekend is definitely a rapscallion.

A rapscallion is defined by OED to be a rascal, a rogue, or a vagabond. Now often used in a humorous manner, its earliest usage in literature dates back to 1648.

The rapscallion contemplating his next shenanigan

Shenanigans:

The second word that I chose is one of my very favorite words: shenanigans. This word can also be, and has been, applied to my new puppy, who has already gotten into all types of shenanigans in one weekend at our house. The OED defines shenanigan as trickery, skullduggery, a prank, an exhibition of high spirits, a carry-on. I really like this definition, especially the “exhibition of high spirits”, as I feel like shenanigans cannot be categorized in a negative way, and can only be said in a manner of teasing or lightheartedness. The origin of the word is categorized as “obscure” by the OED, which I found to be pretty disappointing, so I did some further research. One site suggests that shenanigan may have originated in California about the time of the Gold Rush, though it was first recorded in print only in 1855. It has been spelled in many different ways since then, though most dictionaries have settled on “shenanigans” as the accepted spelling.

Where it comes from is still a matter of considerable disagreement. The word looks Irish, and there was no shortage of Irishmen in the California diggings, so it’s possible that the Irish word sionnachuighm is the source, meaning ‘I play tricks’, which is pronounced roughly as ‘shinnuckeem’. It may also come from an East Anglian dialect word nannicking for “playing the fool” or as a link with the Spanish word chanada for a trick or deceit. It could also come from the German word schinnagel for a nail that holds the rim to the wheel, which produced the German slang terms schinageln, to work, and Schenigelei, a trick.

Flea market:

One of my favorite summer activities is going to flea markets around Wisconsin, and for my third word I decided to choose the idiom flea market to see where this word originated from. Flea market comes from the French phrase marché aux puces, a name originally given to a market in Paris which specialized in shabby second-hand goods of the kind that might contain fleas. The earliest English use that the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary has found dates from 1922. Although you wouldn’t sell much today at a flea market if it was infested in fleas, it is intriguing to me that we still use this idiom commonly to refer to a open-air markets all around the world, when fleas are not something that we would like to bring home with us from any type of market.