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.
Finagle
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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- Slava
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Re: Finagle
Well, here is our Good Doctor's own treatment of this word. It's a couple of years old, but I expect it is not utterly outdated.
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