I asked my clerk what was taking the lawyers in the courtroom so long that we could not begin the afternoon calendar at the scheduled time. She said that the defense attorneys were trying to "finagle a deal out of the prosecutor." I told her she should be careful in front of whom she used such language and she was puzzled. Her sense of the word is that it means merely to negotiate. My sense is that it carries much more pejorative overtones. Who's right?

Here's what Gurunet has, Father Steve:
fi·na·gle (fə-nâ'gəl)

v. Informal., -gled, -gling, -gles.

v.tr.
To obtain or achieve by indirect, usually deceitful methods: finagle a day off from work.
To cheat; swindle: shady stockbrokers who finagle their clients out of fortunes.
v.intr.
To use crafty, deceitful methods.

[Probably from dialectal fainaigue, to cheat.]

All that notwithstanding, when I think of someone finagling, I don't generally assign them motives that are actually sinister; more as someone who doesn't mind bending the rules a little, if it will get them what they want.

And, all of that notwithstanding, I would like to know what language that dialectal fainaigue comes from. And, is finagle related to the verb finesse?

I definitely get the impression of there being something not quite kosher going on with finagle.

Bingley

Dear Father Steve: I have always heard the word used to mean
a protracted discussion using the utmost guile to achieve the best trade off of concessions in a case where a clear win is not possible.

My sense is that it carries much more pejorative overtones. Who's right?
You are.

Well, we are talking about two lawyers here.