fainaigue
English
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fainaigue
- /fəˈneɪɡ/ UK
- /-ˈniːɡ/ UK
- /fəˈneɪɡ/ US
- /-ˈniɡ/ US
Rhymes with -eɪɡ, -iːɡ
Where it comes from
Uncertain; perhaps:
* related to Old French fornoiier, fornier (“to deny”), from for- (prefix expressing error, exclusion, or inadequacy) + noiier, nier (“to deny”) (compare Late Latin forīsnegāre (“to renege, repudiate”), where the Frankish for- is rendered into Latin as forīs), from Latin negāre (“to deny; to refuse, say no; to reject, turn down (something)”), from nē (“no; not”) + aiō (“to affirm, say ‘yes’”)) (for the word ending, compare reneague (“to refuse to follow suit in a card game, renege; to deny, refuse; act of refusing to follow suit in a card game”) (Britain, dialectal)); or
* from feign (“to pretend”) + ague (“intermittent fever; (obsolete) acute fever”), or French aigüe (“(medicine) acute”) (as in maladie aiguë (“acute illness”)), literally “to act sick”.
verb fainaigues · fainaiguing · fainaigued
- To achieve or obtain (something) by complicated or deceitful methods; to finagle, to wangle. [Edmund] Richardson's contract lapsed in 1871, but five years later the almost incredible Jones Hamilton, who played with plantations, race tracks, railroads, and steamboats as a reckless boy plays with marbles, fainaigued a similar agreement.
- To cheat or deceive (someone). He agreed with the boy for a month at £4 a-year, and he went away and feneaged that boy, and never took him nor paid him.
- To evade work or shirk responsibility.
- To fail to keep a promise; to renege.
- To renege (“break one's commitment to follow suit when capable”). When Mr. Simpson had spoken of the "Jack of Oaks" (meaning the Knave of Clubs), or had said "fainaiguing" (where others said "revoking"), we had pretended not to notice it, until at length we actually did not.
Talk about this word "fainaigue." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/fainaigue. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. fainaigue. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/fainaigue "fainaigue." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/fainaigue.Cite this
@misc{fainaigue_2026,
title = {fainaigue},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/fainaigue},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
