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Chicanery Has Roots in French
We have hardly any words that do so fully expresse the French clinquant, naiveté … chicaneries. So lamented English writer John Evelyn in a letter to Sir Peter Wyche in 1665. Evelyn and Wyche were members of a group called the Royal Society, which had formed a committee emulating the French Academy for the purpose of "improving the English language." We can surmise that, in Evelyn's estimation, the addition of chicanery to English from French was an improvement. What he apparently didn't realize was that English speakers had adopted the word from the French chicanerie before he wished for it; the term appears in English manuscripts dating from 1609. Similarly, clinquant ("glittering with gold or tinsel") dates from 1591. Naïveté, on the other hand, waited until 1673 to appear.
Examples of chicanery in a Sentence
Rachel Frazin, The Hill, 6 Feb. 2025
Jane was a devout Protestant at a time of religious upheaval, the ultimate innocent victim of the chicanery of the Tudor court in the chaotic aftermath of Henry VIII’s reign.
—Pan Pylas, Chicago Tribune, 9 Mar. 2025
In the book’s second half, especially, events pile up that have the surface appearance of big drama — a wildfire, a norovirus outbreak, some chicanery Sara unearths on the part of the prison contractor.
—Sam Worley, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2025
Her example teaches us how such practices can protect innocent people while preventing political chicanery from undermining faith in the American system of governance.
—Rebecca Brenner Graham / Made By History, TIME, 4 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for chicanery
Cite this Entry
“Chicanery.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chicanery. Accessed 5 May. 2025.
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