Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related UK versus US English: Smackdown 2004

Mickey Finn: to give some one a Mickey Finn means to add a sleeping drug to their drink in order to rob, or otherwise abuse them. Who was Micky Finn? The following answer appeared in the Q&A section of 'The Times' on 16th July 2003:

"Micky Finn was, around 1896, the dubious proprietor of the Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden Restaurant, the lowest and roughest of all the saloons on Whiskey Row, Chicago. The Palm Garden was so called because it featured a scrawny palm tree in a pot (this tickled me for obvious reasons <g> ) and in this dark, secluded area, the pickpockets trained by Finn practised their arts. Victims had their drinks laced with chloral hydrate "knock-out drops", were rendered sleepy, deprived of clothes, money or virtue and slung out into an alleyway. By 1903 the saloon had been closed down. Finn escaped prosecution and found work as a bartender, supplementing his wage by selling details of his secret "recipe". Chloral hydrate, a near-relative of chloroform, was discovered in 1832. Its nasty taste had to be disguised by a strong-tasting drink, usually whiskey. It was widely used as a sedative in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was occasionally used in this country as a soporific as late as 1998.
Alan Dronsfield, Swanwick, Derbyshire."

We actually took a swing at "Mickey Finn" just a few months ago in the course of exploring the old phrase "take a powder," meaning to leave quickly. The "powder" in question was a "run-out powder," a powerful laxative or purgative. To tell someone to "take a powder" was to order them to "get lost" in very strong terms. This brings us to the real meaning of "Mickey Finn."

As every good pupil of B-movies knows, a "Mickey Finn" is a potion secretly slipped into the hero's drink in a "dive," rendering him "instantly unconscious." He then awakes tied to a chair in the same deserted warehouse that all B-movie heroes awoke tied to a chair in.

But surprise, surprise, the movies were wrong. A "Mickey Finn" was not, originally, a "knock-out potion" (although such "potions" -- usually chloral hydrate -- did exist). A real "Mickey Finn" was a powerful laxative sometimes surreptitiously employed by bartenders to rid their establishments of unruly or belligerent customers. Consider the logic of the real "Mickey Finn" versus "knock-out drops." Rendering an objectionable customer "instantly unconscious" would only compound the bartender's problem -- instead of just an obnoxious drunk, he would then have an unconscious obnoxious drunk on his hands. Far better to use a "run-out powder" to cause the fellow to leave, very quickly, under his own power.

No one has ever been able to establish whether there ever was an original "Mickey Finn." Most authorities agree that it was just a generic Irish name, adopted in the 19th century when the Irish bars of New York City were rowdy and often dangerous places. The phrase apparently only came into general use in the 1920's and 30's through the movies as well as the use of actual "Mickey Finns" in the speakeasies of Prohibition-era America.