English
phony
Phony may come from English fawny ‘gilt brass ring used by swindlers’.
- English1500–presentfawny‘gilt brass ring used by swindlers’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1951phony
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- English1500–presentfawny‘gilt brass ring used by swindlers’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1951phony
Earliest quotation: 1951, Jerome David Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye: “What a deal that was. You never saw so…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁eh₂nos ‘ring’
Today it means
adj Fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English fawny / phony