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AN ETYMOLOGICAL SHINDIG

2/1/2018

2 Comments

 
Somebody asked me today where the word shindig comes from, and the answer is quite engrossing. Meaning "a lively party", this term emerged in the 1870s with mysterious origins. It's possible that it comes from the Scottish word shinty, describing a game similar to hockey, which has a commotion similar to parties. Alternatively, it could be from Gaelic sinteag, meaning "to leap", from Irish shindy, meaning "a spree", or even shinny, another word for hockey. All of these possible origins have one thing in common: they are not Germanic. Rather, they derive from Celtic, which is one of the reasons for their collective obscurity- it is a poorly documented and reconstructed language. Interestingly, usage of the word "shin-dig" is higher than ever; you would think, as an old-timey term, it would have been most used in prior years; however, there's been a recent boom in frequency of shindig. Whether a leap, a spree, or hockey, this word is weird.
2 Comments
Geoffrey Harris
6/1/2019 07:46:43 pm

Well s before i or a is pronounced sh in Gaellic as in Siabhon, siannon, etc.

Help me out here with this one. What do u think? Note that in this link it is said to be an "old-timey" word, one that I tend to use as a matter of course like kaibosh (Irish?) and pishky (Yiddish). https://www.etymologynerd.com/blog/an-etymological-shindig
So is shindig of English or Gaelic origin? shin·dig
/ˈSHinˌdiɡ/
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nouninformal
noun: shindig; plural noun: shindigs

a large, lively party, especially one celebrating something.
"the glitziest of election night shindigs"

Origin
mid 19th century: probably from the nouns shin and dig, influenced later by shindy.
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Use over time for: shindig
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shindig - Wiktionary
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shindig

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Etymology - Etymology[edit]. Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of shindy, or from Scottish Gaelic sìnteag (“jump, leap”).

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Mackenzie Rivers
5/24/2021 03:17:16 pm

I am looking to find the etymology of the word frequency in Irish gaelic because i am slightly baffled it would be a term used in that age of the Druids

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    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic, a senior studying government and linguistics at Harvard University, where I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy trivia, politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law. 
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