Fashionable Words: Chicanery

[Sometimes words die out of fashion. But sometimes those words are good words, words with a certain appeal that can't be denied forever. Those words should be brought back into fashion, used frequently and used often. These are those words.]


Word:
Chicanery

Definition:  noun
The use of trickery to gain a political, financial, or legal purpose.


Origin:
Chicanery's most immediate connection is the nearly identical French word chicanerie--because if the English can't learn to steal French cuisine, they might as well steal French words.

Things didn't evolve too quickly it seems, because if we go back further it appears chicanerie just came from the 16th century word chicaner, which meant "to quibble." That's right, we've gone 300+ years and the word has barely changed. And you thought service at a Parisian restaurant was slow.

From here is where things get murky, with dictionary after dictionary tossing out the always classic "origin unknown." But one etymological blog states that chicaner first appeared in a poem by François Villon (born in 1431), who was a medieval poet. If you're a bit rusty on your medieval poets, you get a pass on this one--but Villon led a life of crime and intrigue until he disappeared sometime around 1463.

Let's go to the highlights!

On June 5, 1455, Villon had a scuffle while in the company of a variety of other gentlemen, including a priest by the name of Philippe Chermoye. As if out of a stereotypical Hollywood adaptation, daggers were drawn, and while people were casually being stabbed in a delightful brouhaha (Chermoye is claimed to have drawn blood first), Villon apparently went big-time, stabbed Chermoye, then grabbed a stone and clobbered the priest over the head, who later died from his injury. Villon fled. A medieval version of a hit-and-run, if you will.

Let's pretend it looked something like this.

Villon was banished, but King Charles VII (best known as the king of France during Joan of Arc's hay day) pardoned him after receiving two petitions that said Chermoye forgave Villon before he died. Rii-i-i-ight. That might have been the head wound talking, but, hey, you take what you can get. As a result, Villon went back home to Paris.

Being the little rapscallion he was, Villon was allegedly involved in the theft of five hundred gold crowns from the chapel of the Collège de Navarre with a group of other thieves sometime around Christmas of 1456. Clearly a very merry Christmas for Villon. Months passed before the theft was discovered, and after one thief was arrested, he claimed Villon was the mastermind behind the crime. Villon was banished again, and apparently wandered for four years--with some scholars believing he led a gang of thieves during this time.

By 1461, Villon popped up again, this time writing that he had been in prison for the summer--which was practically a vacation by Villon's standards. A year later, in 1462, he was arrested again for theft. Villon enjoyed a little five finger discount with everything in life it seems. He made bail though--but then promptly found himself involved in a street fight and was arrested again. With this arrest, the old Christmas theft of five hundred gold crowns was brought up--and Villon was found guilty and ordered to hang. Yet, lucky as he was, he was pardoned by parliament and banished again on January 5, 1463.

Hey, baby Jesus wasn't using it.

And that's where Villon's story ends. He disappears from history. No trace exists as to what happened to him after that. Because I'm sure he went on to live a pious life and didn't have any enemies that would do him harm.


Most obscure UrbanDictionary.com definition of chicanery:
(verbatim)

2. it's a place where Chicanos (mexican-americans) go to school to learn trades.

(Ed.:  As if that doesn't sound a bit racist.)


Used in a sentence:

That shady gentleman used legal chicanery to be found not guilty in court.


Why you should use chicanery in your everyday life:

It sounds like it should be the name of some sort of candy--most likely a brand of licorice.


Word Awesomeness Scale (1-to-5):

Four

It gets a one point deduction for the whole murderer angle.