Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Honeyfuggle

Doesn't the word honeyfuggle sound like it's just made for Valentine's Day activities?

Well, not so fast! You may not want to honeyfuggle, once you read more about its origins...

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Green's Dictionary of Slang has the low-down on this interesting slang word.

My favorite definition, from 1856 is to "sweet talk," to flatter, to entice. (Such a perfect word cannot be ignored... I think someone in my next book is going to have to be accused of honeyfuggling.)

When it originally popped up in about 1829, honeyfuggle (or honeyfogle, or honeyfugle) meant to swindle, to trick, to fool.

A couple of really lovely alternative dialects include:

• connyfogle: entice by flatter, to hoodwink
• gallyfuggle: to deceive or trick

So, is there nothing nice to say about honeyfuggle? Well, another definition (first spotted 1969-70) is to "cuddle up to." And much, much earlier (1872), Susan B. Anthony used honey-fugling for "kissing" in her lectures on Women's Rights.

So if there's any honeyfuggling going on for you on Valentine's Day, here's hoping it all had to do with kissing and cuddling and none of it with cozening.*

I sense honeyfuggling is afoot!
[1882: The Conquest, by John Lavery - Glasgow Boys, Roger Bilcliffe, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17870167]

*cozening being another word for deceiving, winning over, or inducing to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery.