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chime

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Etymology and origin of the English word chime

Pronunciation

  • UK: /tʃaɪm/[1]

chime1 bell, ringing sound

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1300 before 1300, Early English Psalter
Borrowed from
Old French chimbe via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κύμβαλον

Etymology

The word for a bell or its sound is probably inherited from Middle English chimbe, also chyme and chim,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French chimbe (“cymbal”),[5][6][7][2][8] a variant of cimble and cimbe,[2][9][4] from Latin cymbalum (“cymbal”),[6][3][9] from Ancient Greek κύμβαλον (kúmbalon),[10][11] the source of cymbal.[7][6] Barnhart takes the French noun as a back-formation from chimble,[5][12] and Etymonline allows a direct borrowing from Latin.[6] The OED notes that Godefroy has only a single instance of the French word.[3] Other dictionaries trace it to Old English cimbal (“cymbal”), which would have given a Middle English *chimbel that was then misdivided as chymbe belle (“chime bell”), a phrase recorded from the 13th to the 15th century;[13][14][15][16][7] the OED considers both routes.[3] The verb is from the noun,[3][6][5][8] though the Shorter Oxford calls the relation obscure.[14] Similar verbs in the Scandinavian languages, such as Danish kime (“to toll a bell”), are thought by Swedish scholars possibly to come from English.[3] Johnson (1755) thought the word's origin doubtful, citing derivations from cymbal or the Italian verb chiamare (“to call”).[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cymbal: before 1300, in the Early English Psalter.[3] Barnhart dates it to probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, where "His chymbe belle he doth rynge",[12][3] and Etymonline to about 1300.[6] In the Cursor Mundi a chim is compared with a brass bell.[2]

Semantic evolution

Ayto argues that the misdivision of *chimbel as chime bell explains the shift from cymbals to bells, which took place between the 14th and 15th centuries.[7] By 1463 a chime was an apparatus for striking a bell or a set of bells,[3] and Barnhart dates the sense "set of bells" to 1453.[12] From the 16th century it meant a set of bells tuned to play a tune (1550) and the tune itself (1530).[3][6] From the music of bells it passed to any melodious sound and to harmony (1608), to the rhythm of verse (before 1649) and, disparagingly, to mere jingle (before 1674).[3][13] The figurative sense of accord or agreement followed, as in to keep chime with.[3] The verb was first used of metal resounding when struck (before 1340), and of voices from the late 14th century;[3][6] to chime in was at first musical, to join harmoniously, and is recorded of conversation by 1838.[6] The doorbell chime dates from 1934.[3] In Cumberland and Westmorland dialect a hound was said to chime when it found the scent.[18] In American slang chime has meant flattery used to deceive and, in Black slang, an hour (1944).[19]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – a cymbal (obsolete by 1400).[3][12]
  • before 1340 – verb, to resound when struck, in Richard Rolle's Psalter.[3] Barnhart dates the verb to about 1340.[5]
  • c. 1405 – verb, of the voice, to repeat in a cadence, in Chaucer's Reeve's Tale.[3]
  • c. 1440 – verb, to strike a bell so that it sounds.[3]
  • 1463 – an apparatus for striking a bell or bells.[3] Barnhart dates the sense "set of bells" to 1453.[12]
  • 1530 – the tune played on a set of bells.[3]
  • 1550 – a set of bells tuned to play melodies; verb, to indicate the hour by chiming.[3] Etymonline dates the noun sense to the 1560s.[6]
  • 1608 – any melodious sound; harmony.[3]
  • before 1649 – the rhythm or music of verse.[3]
  • 1838 – chime in, to join a conversation.[6]
  • 1847 – figurative, accord, agreement.[3]
  • 1934 – a doorbell that chimes.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A set of bells tuned to a scale and struck to play tunes, or the sound they make: the chimes of the church tower.[8][20][3]
  2. A device for striking a bell or set of bells; especially, a doorbell that gives a musical sound.[8][3][20]
  3. A percussion instrument of tuned metal tubes hung in a frame and struck with a hammer.[20]
  4. A clear ringing or harmonious sound.[20][3]
  5. Agreement or harmony.[20][3]

Verb

  1. Of a bell or clock, to make a musical ringing sound; to sound a bell in this way: The clock in the hall chimed midnight.[8][20][3]
  2. To indicate the hour by chiming.[3][20]
  3. To be in harmony or agreement: His story chimed with what the witnesses said.[8][3]
  4. chime in: to join a conversation, or agree with what is said.[8][20][6]

Word family

  • chimer
  • wind chime
  • chime in

chime2 rim of a cask

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1390 Chaucer's Reeve's Prologue
Inherited from
Old English cimb- via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old English cimb-

Etymology

The word for the rim of a cask is inherited from Middle English chimb, also written chymbe,[2][8][4] probably inherited from Old English cimb-, a stem found in cimbstān (“base of a pillar”) and cimbing (“joint, joining”).[9][8][13][14][21] It corresponds to Middle Dutch kimme (“edge of a cask”), Dutch kim, Middle Low German kimme (“outer edge”) and German Kimme (“edge”),[13][14][8][4] and Klein and Merriam-Webster connect these words with comb.[4][8] The American Heritage Dictionary derives them from Proto-Indo-European *gembh-,[9] and the MED compares Old Norse kimbull (“bundle”).[2] A variant chine also occurs.[8][10][18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The rim of a barrel, formed by the joined ends of the staves: about 1390, in the prologue of Chaucer's Reeve's Tale: "The streem of lyf now droppeth on the chymbe".[2][22][13]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed a coopers' term for the rim at the ends of a cask, and coopers also used it loosely for the staves themselves.[23][18] On ships it named the thickest part of the waterway plank joining the sides to the deck.[23] In the dialects of the Midlands and the south of England it was still used in the 19th century for a cask's stave or rim, also in the forms chimb and chine.[18] The verb, to chamfer the staves to form the chime, appears in 1880.[3][14]

Timeline

  • c. 1390 – the rim of a barrel, in Chaucer.[2][22]
  • before 1475 – in John Russell's Boke of Nurture, on tapping a cask.[2]
  • 1880 – verb, to groove or chamfer cask staves to form the chime.[3][14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The rim at either end of a cask, formed by the ends of the staves projecting beyond the head.[8][24][23][14]
  2. The chamfer cut on the rim of a cask or on a single stave.[8]

Verb

  1. To chamfer the ends of a cask's staves so as to form the chime.[8][3][14]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  12. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  13. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  18. ^ a b c d 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)
  19. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  21. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  22. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  23. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  24. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Related etymologies

  • greet · also from Old English
  • rainy · also from Old English
  • sorrow · also from Old English
  • glove · also from Old English
  • thirsty · also from Old English
  • whisper · also from Old English
  • knot · also from Old English
  • slack · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Chime.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/chime. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·