Meaning
Sleight of hand: the quick, deceiving manual skill a magician uses to make objects appear, vanish, or transform. By extension it names any adroit trickery or artful deception, as in accounting, rhetoric, or political spin. The word is formal and literary, and its extended sense usually carries a knowing, ironical tone, unlike the plain noun 'trick.' Formal register with a literary flourish; usually sardonic or admiring in figurative uses. Regional use: General English (borrowed from French).
Origin
From Old and Middle French leger de main, literally 'light of hand' or 'nimble of hand,' in which leger, 'light, quick,' descends from Latin levis, 'light in weight,' and main, 'hand,' from Latin manus. English borrowed the whole phrase in the early fifteenth century for conjuring tricks and sleight of hand, and the three French words fused into the single English word legerdemain, a spelling that no longer transparently reveals its parts. From the literal magician's sense grew the figurative one of cunning dexterity or underhanded skill, and the original two-word French phrase survives in English only as an archaic variant spelling.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- legerdemaine
Usage Examples
- The magician's legerdemain made the coin vanish mid-sentence.
- The accountant's legerdemain hid the shortfall for two full quarters.
- With characteristic legerdemain, the minister reframed the retreat as a victory.