clink

clink¹ sharp ringing sound

Etymology

The word for the sharp ringing sound is inherited from Middle English clinken.^[2][3] Etymonline, Barnhart and Weekley call it imitative,^[4][5][6] and the American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Unabridged, the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it as probably borrowed, from Middle Dutch klinken (“to sound, ring, tinkle”), itself imitative.^{[7][3][8][9][10]} The OED calls the origin uncertain: the Dutch verb has parallels in Old High German klingan, German klingen, Swedish klinga and Danish klinge, which point to two echoic stem forms, and since neither is found in Old English it cannot say whether the English verb goes back with the Dutch to an older common form or arose later.^[11] Old English has clingan, but in an entirely different sense, the source of cling.^[11] Etymonline suggests that the verb may be a weakened form of clank,^[4] and Hoad compares that word and clang.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To ring or sound sharply: about 1386, in Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale,^[11] where the Middle English Dictionary quotes "They herde a belle clynke".^[2] Barnhart dates the verb to before 1325,^[5] Etymonline to the early 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The verb was used of bells and metal from the start, also of making something sound,^[11][2] including striking glasses together.^[11] The noun came from the verb,^[5][2][8] and Johnson (1755) quotes Othello for "the clink and fall of swords".^[12] From the 18th century the sound also became a term of scorn for mere rhyme, used of words that jingle.^[11][3] In Scots the sound passed to quick, abrupt action, as in clink down, to put down smartly, and to a smart blow, a transition the OED calls common there;^[11] clink also meant ready money, from Ramsay in 1729.^[11][8] Scottish and other dialects kept to cry clink and the sense of a chime or stroke of a bell into the 19th century.^[13] In 20th-century metallurgy it named an internal crack caused by uneven heating or cooling, a use the Shorter Oxford treats as of unknown origin.^[11][8]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – to make a sharp metallic sound, and to cause something to sound in this way, in Chaucer.^[11]
• c. 1400 – noun, the sound of clashing metal, in the Destruction of Troy, copied about 1540.^[2][11][4]
• before 1522 – of birds uttering their notes, in Douglas.^[11]
• before 1716 – noun, mere assonance or jingle, in R. South.^[11]
• 1718 – in Scots, expressing quick abrupt action, in Ramsay.^[11]
• 1722 – noun, a smart sharp blow.^[11]
• 1729 – noun, in Scots, money.^[11]
• 1819 – to move with a clinking sound, in Scott.^[11]
• 1925 – noun, an internal crack in a block of metal; 1929, the verb.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light, sharp, ringing sound, as of glasses or coins striking together.^[14][3][11]
2. (chiefly Scottish) Money, cash.^[3][11][8]
3. (archaic) A rhyme or jingle; mere assonance.^[15][3][11]
4. The sharp note of certain birds, such as the stonechat.^[3][11]
5. (dialect) A quick, sharp blow.^[3][11][8]
6. (metallurgy) A small internal crack in a block of steel, caused by uneven heating or cooling.^[15][11][8]
7. (Britain) A pointed steel bar for breaking up a road surface.^[14][15]

Verb

1. To make, or cause to make, a light, sharp, ringing sound: He clinked his spoon against the mug.^[14][3][11]
2. To move with such a sound: The soldier clinked across the yard in his spurs.^[3][11]
3. (archaic) Of words or verses, to rhyme or jingle.^[3][11]
4. (metallurgy) To cause metal to crack internally.^[11][8]

Word family

• clinking
• clinkstone

clink² prison

Etymology

The word for the prison is from English from the Clink, a noted prison in Southwark, London,^{[5][3][7][14][16]} which probably took its name from Clink, a part of the Manor of Southwark.^[3][16] Etymonline places it on Clink Street, on the estate of the bishops of Winchester.^[4] The origin of the name is uncertain.^[11][5] The OED says that the evidence points to a name proper to Southwark and carried elsewhere, but that the reverse is possible, and that a descriptive name could have come from the verb meaning "to fasten securely".^[11] Barnhart also considers that verb, a northern form of clench, or else some lost allusion to the ringing sound;^[5] Etymonline and Partridge think of the noise of chains or locks,^[4][17] and Green's Dictionary of Slang leaves open the fastening and the chains.^[18] Weekley relates it to clinch as well and compares Dutch klink (“door latch”),^[6] and Dictionary.com too suggests this Dutch word.^[15] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English call the origin unknown.^[9][8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Southwark prison: 1515, in Barclay's Eglogues: "Then art thou clapped, in the Fleete or Clynke".^[18][6][3] The OED, dating Barclay's text about 1530, gives the later date.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The name was at first proper to the one prison, which had a widespread reputation as a dismal place.^[16] By the 1580s people spoke of "kissing the clink", being imprisoned.^[4] Grose (1788) knew the Clink as a place in Southwark once privileged from arrest and home to lawless vagabonds called clinkers.^[18] Etymonline dates the general sense "prison" to the 1770s.^[4] The OED and the English Dialect Dictionary record it especially in Devon and Cornwall for a small lock-up,^[11][13] as in the Plymouth Clink of 1810.^[18] The word was also army slang for a guard room in the First World War,^[18] and underworld slang had a verb clink, to arrest, from 1815.^[18]

Timeline

• 1515 – the prison in Southwark.^[18][3][5]
• 1580s – to kiss the clink, to be imprisoned.^[4]
• 1770s – any prison.^[4]
• 1815 – verb, to arrest, in Scott.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang) A prison or prison cell, often in the phrase in the clink: He spent the weekend in the clink for brawling.^[14][3][8]
2. (slang) A military guardhouse.^[3][18]
3. the Clink: a former prison in Southwark, London.^[11][16]