Why Does ’Phony’ Mean Fake?

From disingenuous people to counterfeit goods, most of us have dealt with fakes at some point. A common term for something that’s not real is the word phony. But where did the word come from, anyway? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the credit goes to con artists.

Merriam-Webster reports that the word entered the English language through an old British scam. It involved coating a brass ring with a thin layer of gold to make the jewelry appear more valuable than it was. The scammer would intentionally drop the item and pick it up when another person noticed it. They would then suggest to their mark that the ring’s value be split between them. Once the stranger was convinced of the ring’s supposed value, the conman then offered to give it to them in exchange for money—an amount too high for brass.

The jewelry piece was called a fawney, borrowed from the Irish word fáinne, which translates to “ring.” The earliest known use of fawney likely dates back to the late 1700s. As a noun, fawney referred to the thief that performed the scam. The phrase to go on the fawney also referred to the ring-dropping trick. The ring’s key role in the ploy likely birthed the word phony.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word phony first appeared in print in 1893. At the time, it was used as an adjective to describe shady horse racing bookmakers. By the early 1900s people used the word as a general noun for fake things and insincere people. Phony became increasingly popular from the early 1900s to the 1960s, with The Catcher in the Rye solidifying its place in the lexicon in 1951. Usage of the word has declined since then, but it hasn’t vanished from the English vocabulary. When you encounter something—or someone—fake out in the world, sometimes phony is still the right word for the job.

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