The word phoney was once thought to be linked to the telephone. Photograph: Plexi images
It’s a dubious claim to fame, perhaps, but it seems that one of the Irish language’s most enduring gifts to English is the word “phoney”.
Dictionaries still tend to declare it of “origin unknown” and trace it back only the US, where it emerged in its current form. Indeed, phoney was largely unknown in these islands until 1939, when it became suddenly embroiled in the second World War.
During the early months of that conflict, up to May 1940, not much happened on the western front. The Germans coined the word sitzkrieg (“sitting war”) to describe the situation. The French called it “drole de guerre”.
Churchill spoke of a “twilight war”.
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