The Expression to Fanny About

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) records the expression to 'fanny around (or about): to mess around, waste time; to act in an unproductive or dithering manner only from 1969. The etymology is given as '< fanny, n. , "female genitals"1, and we are asked to compare the vulgarisms to fuck about, and to arse around. There is, however, an earlier use of the term which, if not the direct origin, may have contributed to the history of this expression. The Suffolk writer Edward Fitzgerald published a collection of what he called (sea words and phrases along the Suffolk coast' in 1869,2 and amongst these is given 'FANNY ABOUT. A light variable wind fannies about'.