The Austinist yet again used the phrase “Calling Shenanigans” This irks me for some reason. Perhaps because I have some French blood and cannot abide the incorrect use of words. I don’t know.

Looking at the Wikipedia entry for “Schenanigans” it appears that we have Trey Parker and Matt Stone to thank for this bizarre mangling of a word.

Proper use of shenanigans from literature.

“I’ve put up with all your shenanigan I’m goin’ to.” - The Valley of the Moon by Jack London

“consider them all (and their owners) guilty (of “shenanigan”) until they are proved innocent” - Complete Letters of Mark Twain

“There’s some sort of shenanigan brewing, or my first name’s Peter” - The Days of Days by Louis Vance

You know you love my crazy, grumpy rants.

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Comments

Kate (http://katiekatworld.blogspot.com)

2008-06-13T04:09:46.000Z

Stupid question: what do they even mean by “calling shenanigans”?

Tim (http://www.loadedguntheory.com)

2008-06-13T15:57:59.000Z

It’s like “calling bullsh*t”. FTA - “The store manager, suspicions raised due to the large amount of currency being converted, called shenanigans and contacted the police.” That’s part of the reason it irks me so much. If you understand how to use the word properly any sentence you read that phrase in makes no sense.