dangle

Etymology

It is probably of Scandinavian origin,^[2][3][4][5] perhaps borrowed from Danish dangle (“to dangle”) or Swedish dangla (“to swing about”).^[6][2][5] Etymonline also names Norwegian dangla and suggests a route through North Frisian dangeln.^[2] The OED, which calls the Scandinavian origin only possible, notes that these words are ablaut derivatives of Danish dingle and Icelandic dingla, both meaning to dangle; in form they seem to belong with ding, though the link in sense is unclear.^[7] Skeat and Weekley likewise took it as a frequentative verb related to ding.^[8][9] Others see a word of imitative or symbolic origin, for something loose and hanging,^{[10][11][12][4]} and the Oxford Dictionary of English calls the origin unclear.^[13] Johnson followed Skinner in deriving it from hang.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To hang loosely, swaying to and fro: about 1590, in Sir Thomas More.^[7] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s and Barnhart to about 1590,^[2][3] but Merriam-Webster dates the intransitive verb to 1565.^[4][15]

Semantic evolution

The transitive sense, to make a thing hang and sway or to carry it loosely suspended, followed before 1625,^[7] in the 1610s in Etymonline's dating.^[2] From 1607 the verb was used figuratively of hanging about a person as a loose follower,^[7] and Johnson (1755) defined this sense as being "an humble, useless, harmless follower".^[14] From the early 18th century dangle after was said of a man courting a woman without meaning to propose.^[16][4] Slang used the verb for being hanged on the gallows from 1678,^[7][16] and the 19th century added the figurative sense of holding out hopes or rewards before someone (1871).^[7] Weekley notes that its senses were confused with those of dandle.^[9] In Scotland dannle meant to swing, quiver or throb with pain, and in north Lincolnshire dangle meant to loiter or to court.^[17] The noun, something that dangles, is recorded from 1756,^[7][4] and in 20th-century slang it was also the penis.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1590 – to hang loosely, swaying to and fro.^[7]
• 1607 – to hang about a person as a follower.^[7]
• before 1625 – transitive, to make something hang and sway.^[7]
• 1678 – to be hanged on the gallows.^[7]
• 1705 – dangle after, to court a woman without intending marriage.^[16]
• 1756 – noun, something that dangles.^[7][4]
• 1871 – figuratively, to hold out hopes before someone.^[7]
• 1967–68 – noun, in slang, the penis.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hang loosely, swinging or swaying: The climber's rope dangled below the ledge.^{[18][4][19][7]}
2. To make something hang and swing; to hold it loosely suspended.^[18][19][7]
3. To hold out something as an enticement, or to keep hopes uncertain: The firm dangled a bonus before its sales staff.^[18][19][7]
4. To hang about someone as a hanger-on or follower, often with after.^[4][19][7]
5. Of a word or phrase, to stand in a sentence without the expected grammatical link to the word it should modify, as in a dangling participle.^[4][15]
6. To be hanged.^[4][7]

Noun

1. The act of dangling.^[18][4][19]
2. Something that dangles.^{[18][4][19][7]}

Word family

• dangler
• dangly
• danglingly
• dangling participle

Related words

• ding
• dandle
• adangle

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin