?Feynits!

[Escutcheon]

Can anyone please tell me where the childrens' custom of calling "?feynits" and crossing your fingers for a "time-out" from a game comes from.

[flicrat]

We used to say " Fains not me" in Norfolk in the '40s when we didn't want to open the door for the teacher or be the catcher in a game. In the ballad " Lord Rendell" he says " Make my bed soon for I fain would lie down"This means he wants to,so we were saying we DIDN't want to, I suppose. Not sure what a timeout is in children's games, but you need to look to antiquity I guess!

[Quizmonster]

Fains or fainit(e)s were the usual forms for this children's word demanding a truce. The word came from the old verb, fen, an early form of our modern word fend, meaning to ward off...ie to prevent some action by someone else. In children's games, the idea behind the call of ‘Fains!' was that the person hunting you or whatever would temporarily give up and leave you alone.

[Narolines]

Well, in the West Midlands we always said "barley" .....probably a corruption of "parlez", indicating the desire for a truce. We crossed fingers too - I wonder where that comes from......

[Quizmonster]

I understand that crossed fingers were originally - because of the Cross - used as a secret sign by Christians. Such fingers are also very similar in appearance to the simplified 'fish' symbol also used by them to designate their religion..

[Mustardmit]

I wonder if it's a corruption of the word "finite" (as in 'finishing'/'the end').

[Mustardmit]

Quizmonster - I wonder if the crossed fingers pre-dates christianity. I believe the fish symbol was a christian corruption of the Wiccan 'vesica piscis' female fertility symbol. It would make more sense as the Wiccan faith has quite a lot of 'protective' symbols and signs. Also, before christians got hold of it, the vesica piscis fish symbol was depicted vertically, similar to the way the crossed fingers are presented. Now I'm off to research "pax" :-)