[a. F. chicane.
F. chicane, chicaner, chicanerie, chicaneur, are unknown to the other Romanic langs. So far as the evidence goes, chicanerie is considerably older than chicane, which latter looks like a derivative of the verb. Littré and Devic think the French derived from med. Gr. τζυκανίζ-ειν, var. of τζουκανίζ-ειν το play golf or polo (whence τζουκάνισμα the game, and τζουκανιστήριον a place for playing it, cited from Theophanas A.D. 817, by Sophocles); app. f. Pers. chaugān the crooked stick used in polo. But evidence actually connecting the French with the Gr. word appears not to be known.]
1. = CHICANERY 1.
1692. Locke, Educ., Wks. IX. 176. Civil law … concerns not the chicane of private cases, but the affairs … of civilized nations in general.
1698. [R. Fergusson], View Eccles., 5. With Impertinence, Insincerity, and Chicane.
1742. Pope, Dunc., IV. 28. Chicane in furs, and Casuistry in lawn.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., V. V. 446. All the subtleties and chicane which the court of Rome can so dexterously employ to protract or defeat any cause.
1807. Jebb, Corr., I. 350. That church fruitlessly tried every thing, that chicane and bribery could do, to gain her to their side.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, II. 56. The whole commerce was a mass of fraud and chicane.
2. (with pl.) A particular instance of chicanery; a subterfuge, petty trick, quibble. Obs.
1676. Temple, Lett., Wks. 1731, II. 369. Sir Lyonell Jenkins told me … of a Chicane made him by Monsieur Beverning upon the Point of first Visit. Ibid. (1678), ibid. II. 503. A Chicane about Words, whether the French Declaration were in Form, or their Promise in Writing.
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1723), II. 78. Cleo. There is a great Difference between that [natural] and artificial Courage. Hor. That’s a Chicane I won’t enter into.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), II. 488. One who takes advantage of such chicanes, is not commonly regarded as an honest man.
