To Finnie Something Is to Claim It

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Mary Bussey. I’m calling from Alexandria, Virginia.

Well, welcome to the show, Mary. What’s on your mind?

Well, a word from my childhood. I was a child during World War II. I grew up in Covington, Kentucky, which you probably know is across the river from Cincinnati, very German area.

When I was a child, if there were options like red, yellow, or green popsicle or candy, we’d say, I finneyed the red one. It was the equivalent. We would say I won first dibs on it. And I have no idea why I started thinking of that word recently. I have no idea how it would be spelled or even if it is a word. Maybe it’s something kids made up.

I left that area in the early 60s. I’ve not heard that word since. So, again, that’s Finney. How would you spell Finney? I finney that.

Well, if I were going to guess, and it would be F like Frank, I, N like Nancy, Y like yellow. But that’s just phonetics. I would have no idea. I’ve tried PH. I’ve tried double N. Even PF, because a lot of things in Cincinnati German names start with PF.

Sure, yeah. Yeah, it’s definitely a word, Mary, and usually you see it spelled F-I-N-N-I-E. We’re not totally sure about this, but the most likely explanation is that it goes back to the game of marbles where fen, F-E-N, ultimately traces to the idea of fending, defending something or forbidding something. So you would use fen like as a transitive verb. And the basic idea is I forbid.

So you’re setting up a rule within a game. And it’s one of many terms from the past and present, actually that people use to claim things. In New England, you might hear, I hosie that, you know, I hosie the front seat of the car, you know, that’s where I see.

Oh, really?

Yeah, there are all kinds of words like this, wacky and finwacky and muggins, or you might say, I have beans on that, B-E-A-N-S, beans, or I have ducks on that. Yeah. And I kibby and I posse, and in the UK they say I bags or I bagsy.

I bagsy that or I bagsy that.

Yeah, kids have been claiming things like that for a long time and sometimes they carry that on into adulthood.

So adults still, first off, is it still in use?

I have not lived in that area since early 60s. I’ve not heard it in all these many years in other places I’ve lived. Is it still in use?

Well, it’s not particular to the Cincinnati area at all.

It’s not? Okay.

No, I mean, you can find fen in that sense all the way back to the English dialect dictionary of the 1895 in England.

Yeah, so I don’t know if it’s widely used or ever was all that widely used, but it’s sprinkled throughout the United States. I would not be surprised if we hear from other listeners who still use it.

Oh, really?

I don’t know if the young folks do.

Well, this is interesting.

Well, Mary, thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

I love the show.

Oh, yeah.

And I’m a great fan of spreading the word. Anybody who uses that I think is, I can tell from their conversations they like words, I tell them about your podcast.

Oh, that’s nice.

Thank you, Mary.

Thank you, Mary. Appreciate that.

Take care now.

And I appreciate the show.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

All righty.

Bye-bye.

Well, Hosey or Finney, a spot on our show, toll-free text or call 877-929-9673.

Or go to our website. We’ve got a contact form there, all of our social media handles, and every episode going way back. That’s at waywordradio.org.