bingo

Etymology

The game's name is probably a use of the exclamation “bingo!”, perhaps with reference to the call in the game,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} though the AHD and the Oxford Dictionary of English call its origin unknown.^[7][8] The OED thinks the name was probably prompted by the earlier game beano (1908), named after the beans players used as counters,^[2] and Dictionary.com takes bingo as an alteration of beano.^[9] The exclamation itself is perhaps shortened from bingo-bango, used of a series of hits or shots, or an arbitrary expressive formation with -o;^[2] Merriam-Webster and the SOED take it as an alteration of bing, imitating a sudden action,^[6][3] and Collins suggests the sound of a bell rung to mark a win.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an exclamation marking something done quickly or easily, or a discovery or a correct answer: 1907, in the OED.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1903.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Like bingo, with great speed or force, is recorded from 1922 and is now dated.^[2] The game, in which numbers are drawn at random and players mark them on a grid printed on a card, appears in 1922 in a Kansas newspaper;^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1923, Etymonline to 1924 and Barnhart to 1929.^[6][4][5] From 1939 the name was given to other games based on it, such as educational games for children;^[2] from 1937 it was also used figuratively of a situation governed by chance.^[2] In Scrabble a bingo is the playing of all seven tiles in one turn.^[10] American slang has also used bingo for a hard blow (1920), a prison riot and a drug injection (1938).^[11]

Timeline

• 1903 – exclamation of sudden success, in Merriam-Webster.^[6]
• 1907 – the OED's first record of the exclamation.^[2]
• 1922 – the game.^[2]
• 1922 – like bingo, with great speed.^[2]
• 1937 – figurative, a situation governed by chance.^[2]
• 1939 – other games based on bingo.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A game of chance in which numbers are drawn and called out at random and players mark them on their cards, the first to complete a set pattern winning: Our grandparents play bingo at the parish hall every Friday.
2. Any of various games modelled on this, such as educational games for children.
3. (Scrabble) The playing of all seven tiles in a single turn.

Interjection

1. The cry of the winner in a game of bingo.
2. Used to mark a sudden event or a quick success, or to agree that something is exactly right: Bingo! That's the file I was looking for.

Word family

• bingo card

Related words

• beano
• bing

Usage notes

An old cant word bingo, brandy (1699) and later any strong spirit, is perhaps stingo with the b- of brandy;^[2][3][12] Etymonline finds its connection with the game uncertain.^[4] A children's ring game called Bingo (1877) takes its name from the folk song about a farmer's dog called Bingo, first recorded in 1778;^[2][13] Etymonline cites Haliburton's account (1854) of a drinking game in which players spelled out the dog's name letter by letter and drank when they missed.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)