With the advent of the Internet Wrestling Community and the sports entertainment movement in pro wrestling, the maintenance of pro wrestling's backstage secrets are more difficult to keep than they were in earlier decades. So I ask you, Cageside Seats readers, what is "kayfabe"? It has been interpreted as an alteration (following the conventions of back slang) of the command ‘Be fake! Unknown, but attributed to US carnival slang ("carny"), usually as a purposefully obscure variant of the admonition "be fake" formed through back slang or mangled pig Latin.

or the names of various eponymous individuals are probably apocryphal.

IPA : /ˈkeɪfeɪbd/ Hyphenation: kay‧fabed; Adjective . | FAQs | ^Source Please note this bot is in testing. Did I break a rule? Bereits in den Anfängen des Wrestling wurde der Begriff als Synonym für das „Schützen der Geschäftsgeheimnisse“ verwendet. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy.

One of the most notable such cases was the MSG Incident where Triple H's rise to professional wrestling stardom in the WWF was stunted for some time after he embraced his soon-to-be departing onscreen rivals, Diesel and Razor Ramon, at the end of a house show at Madison Square Garden. Then, the guys discuss the origins of the phrase "Jump on the Bandwagon" and the words "Ballyhoo" and &q

The whole point of carnival talk was to speak quickly, and in manner that the "rubes" couldn't understand.

Please checkout the source ^code to submit bugs. This was code letting the people at home know they had made it safely to the next town without paying for the cost of a phone call. In professional wrestling, kayfabe (pronounced KAY-fayb; IPA: Template:IPA) refers to the portrayal of events within the industry as real, that is the portrayal of professional wrestling as not staged or worked.

It lists some spelling variations from the 19th and 20th centuries: Forms: 19– Kay Fabe, 19– kay fabe, 19– kay-fabe, 19– kayfabe, 20– kafabe. My first words, actually.". As historically important as the language is, however, there remains no place in the phenomenology of prison history for that most venerated of carnival phrases, kayfabe. With money tight, a carny would call home collect and ask for "Kay Fabian." Put another way, all art - high or low, fine or coarse - is composed of what the artist allows us to see. Kayfabe may also derive from another trick used by traveling carnival workers. 779 votes, 72 comments. 1995 Los Angeles Times (Electronic ed.) I am by no means the first person to notice the prevalence of this patois, as the penologists John Irwin and Inez Cardozo-Freeman found both Carny and Polari (its English counterpart) present in both the California and Washington state penal systems, despite the fact none of the cant's users had personal histories in carnival work. The answer, of course, is that the term we have simply does not fit the realities of modern wrestling and hasn't for some time. freelance Journalist and wrestling enthusiast John Lister. Via freelance Journalist and wrestling enthusiast John Lister. EDIT: I came back to add some sources and tidy it up to find I was downvoted for this? Kayfabe Soul Urge, be fake als Ursprung dienten. Interesting: Naz ^Hughes | Ralph ^Pierce | Unsanctioned ^Match | Antony ^Victor, Parent commenter can toggle ^NSFW or ^delete.

Kayfabe Inner Dream, Name Number: 6 Meaning: Home, Family, Love, Balance, Harmony, Help, Warmth, Social justice. I honestly never new there was an entomology for it. In New York there was a regional term "keep cavey" meaning keep something a secret. According to wikipedia the first instance is in the book "Fall Guys: The Barnums of Bounce" by Marcus Griffin from 1937. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Discussing the origins of words and phrases, in English or any other language.

This episode starts with Steve's revelation about a "one-night stand" with Hall and Oates and his memories of a previous, disappointing experience with them as well.

To put it shortly, this article should be about the word kayfabe in of itself (for which an etymology would be nice, as many have mentioned). Here are Kayfa Stories.

This fall, I will be addressing the American Society of Criminology on the value of Carny (also known as 'Kizarny' or 'Ceazarney') to the historical study of the American prison.

Another theory claims that there actually was a wrestler called "Kay Fabian" who was mute. The word's origins are unknown, but it is also seeing increased use outside the world of wrestling, alluding to politics and tricks in general. A functional definition of kayfabe should both be able to address how it shrouds The Undertaker's shoot identity as well as how it aids Mark Calaway in constructing his on-stage persona. USEFUL RESOURCES: etymonline.com, wiktionary.org, oed.com (get access through your local library or institution), books.google.com/ngrams, trends.google.com, Press J to jump to the feed. How could they make that big of a mistake? Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts.

As I was saying, it's a very very hard to trace word because of the nature of it's use. 2005 Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune (Nexis) 10 Feb. h8 When a wrestler breaks kayfabe, that means he acted out of character. However, (even today), wrestlers who unexpectedly break kayfabe are often punished for their actions. I always thought it was twisted pig Latin for 'fake'. You may be interested to know that many places credit Steve Austin with coining "Jabroni", whereas Austin credits the Iron Sheik. I imagine not noticing that section but following the attestations is what led to the Merriam-Webster piece deciding the term dates to the 80s, as the earliest attestation given by the OED is from 1988: 1988 Wrestling Observer Newslet.
Kayfabe Expression,



Something something work, something something shoot, brother... Maybe Hulk Hogan told them it started around his time, Or, well, Ryback..."I made up that word when I was a kid. Given the seeming uniformity of definitions - including John Lister's terrific discussion of kayfabe's etymology - one might still wonder why we need to revisit kayfabe's meaning in the first place. Kayfabe comes in many forms, but its essence is an unspoken agreement between performers and an audience: “We’ll present you with something clearly fake under the insistence that it’s real, and you will experience genuine emotion. The word would not originally have been used as part of a sentence. The real reason for the outcome of the match is kayfabe.


Another theory suggests that the term derives from the expression "keep cavey", from the Latinverb cav… Leave your suggestions in the comments section and we'll try to create a new working definition. Cageside Seats, for Pro Wrestling and MMA fans, By WallopingWebslinger The term "kayfabe" itself may ultimately originate from the Pig Latin form of "fake" ("ake-fay") or the phrase "be fake." But exactly what does it mean? In the world of professional wrestling, 'kayfabe' is a word used to describe staged performances and the act of maintaining the illusion outside the ring. The term "kayfabe" itself may ultimately originate from the Pig Latin form of "fake" ("ake-fay") or the phrase "be fake.".