As long as there have been people selling things, there have been people cheating, swindling, and otherwise trying to get more money than something’s worth. And of course, words have evolved to describe those things.
In the late 1780s, one such word was fawney, used especially by the Irish to describe brass rings (fainne means “ring”) being sold as gold.
The word stuck, and then got changed in spelling and pronunciation slightly as it was adopted by the greater English-speaking world. Over the course of the next century, the spelling changed to phoney and then phony, and it went from being specifically a fake-ring to being anything fake or not genuine.
By 1902, it shifted from being strictly an adjective–a property of a thing that was fake–to being used as a noun to describe that ingenuine thing or even person.
*This is an affiliate link. If you purchase this product from this link, I will receive a small commission.
Word Nerds Unite!
Read More Word of the Week Posts
Word Nerds Merch!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. 
Hi Roseanna, I am prompted to write for several reasons. I have been praying for you as you journey through chemo with its ups and downs. And I have read a number of your books with much satisfying pleasure and delight. I have just recently been listening to 2 audio books – A Song Unheard, and An Hour Unspent. The reader of these books does an amazing job of keeping the people distinct through her brilliant accents! I really “like” (often need to hear, resonate, require action on my part) the lessons you teach through the stories. I had never heard of the Culper Ring until my daughter loaned your series to me – fascinating! There’s much more I could say – as I have spend many a delightful hour with your characters, and thus with you. But I’ll just close by saying thank you for the blog post on “I Won’t Be…” What a message! I printed it off so I can refer to it often and remind myself “I will be the person who chooses love.”