CHICANE

chicane, the pettifogging subterfuge and delay of sharp law-practitioners, also any deliberate attempt to gain unfair advantage by petty tricks. a more common english form of the word is "chicanery." "chicane" is technically used also as a term in the game of bridge for the points a player may score if he holds no trumps. the word is french, derived either from _chaug[=a]n_, persian for the stick used in the game of "polo," still played on foot and called _chicane_ in languedoc (the military use of _chicaner_, to take advantage of slight variations in ground, suits this derivation), or from _chic_, meaning little or petty, from the spanish _chico_, small, which appears in the phrase "_chic a chic_," little by little.