chicanery

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The Word of the Day for October 15 is:

chicanery   \shih-KAY-nuh-ree\   noun 
    *1 : deception by artful subterfuge or sophistry : trickery
     2 : a piece of sharp practice (as at law) : trick

Example sentence:
     The mayor's spokeswoman quickly denied the charges of 
nepotism, financial indiscretions, and political chicanery.

Did you know?
     "We have hardly any words that do so fully expresse the 
French clinquant, naivete ... chicaneries." So lamented English 
writer John Evelyn in a letter to Sir Peter Wyche in 1665. 
Evelyn and Wyche were members of a group called the Royal 
Society, which had formed a committee emulating the French 
Academy for the purpose of "improving the English language." We 
can surmise that, in Evelyn's estimation, the addition 
of "chicanery" to English from French was an improvement. What 
he apparently didn't realize was that English speakers had 
adopted the word from the French "chicanerie" before he wished 
for it; the term appears in English manuscripts dating from 
1609. Similarly, "clinquant" ("glittering with gold or tinsel") 
dates from 1591. "Naivete," on the other hand, waited until 1673 
to appear.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.