Scandiknavery
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Blend of Scandinavian + knavery. Coined by Irish novelist and poet James Joyce in his 1939 novel Finnegans Wake (see quotation below).
Noun[edit]
Scandiknavery (uncountable)
- (nonce word) Duplicity by or involving Scandinavians.
- 1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC:
- For to sod the brave son of Scandiknavery.
- 1966, A Wake Newslitter[1], volume 3, page 114:
- Mrs. Christiani twice […] guesses that Kierkegaard may be behind this bit of Scandiknavery.
- 1990, Neil Rolde, Maine: A Narrative History, →ISBN, page 6:
- In other words, had the [Viking] site in Maine been “salted?” Was this simply a new and audacious case of “Scandiknavery?”
- 2000, Orm Øverland, Immigrant Minds, American Identities: Making the United States Home, 1870–1930, →ISBN, page 166:
- However, some myth elements that a few other Norwegian-American promoters tried to make part of the Norwegian-American homemaking argument may more readily be dismissed as what Michael Musmanno in an angry moment has called “Scandiknavery.” One such myth was […] that George Washington was of Norwegian descent.
References[edit]
- “Scandiknavery, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
