ding

ding¹ strike; dent

Etymology

The verb meaning to strike is inherited from Middle English dingen, also dengen.^[2][3] Its source is disputed.^[4] Etymonline, Klein and the Shorter Oxford take it as probably borrowed from Old Norse dengja (“to hammer, whet a scythe”),^[5][6][7] compare Old Swedish dängia (“to strike, beat, hammer”) and Danish dænge (“to beat, bang”),^[4][7] which the OED explains as a causative of a Germanic strong verb.^[4] The MED, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com derive it from an unrecorded Old English *dingan, related to dencgan (“to beat, strike”),^[2][8][3] and the OED gives this as the second possibility.^[4] Kroonen reconstructs Proto-Germanic *dingwaną (“to beat”), with diunga and Middle High German tingelen (“to knock, hammer”), as a strong verb probably of imitative origin.^[9][1] Klein relates it to Old High German tangol (“hammer”) and German dengeln (“to hammer, beat”).^[6][4] The OED suggests that, if it was borrowed from a weak Norse verb, its strong past forms “dang” and “dung” arose on the model of verbs like sing and ring.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To beat or strike with heavy blows: about 1300, in Havelok the Dane.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to beat, scourge or overcome in fighting, and it was used of storms beating on someone.^[2] From about 1380 it also meant to smash, and in the phrase ding to death to kill;^[4] before 1400 it was also used for knocking or driving something in a given direction.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave "to dash with violence" and "to impress with force", and also an intransitive use, "to bluster, to huff", which he called "a low word".^[10] The verb lived on mostly in Scotland and the north of England, where it kept the strong forms “dang” and “dung”;^[11][7] Merriam-Webster still labels the senses "strike" and "throw violently" dialectal.^[8] The noun, a heavy blow, followed in Richard Rolle's Psalter (before 1500) and is also now mainly Scottish and regional.^[4][7] American usage gave both words new life in the 20th century: a ding was a dent or small blemish from 1922,^[4] to ding a car door is to cause minor surface damage to it,^[8] and Etymonline dates the meaning "dent" to the 1960s.^[5] College slang of the late 1940s used ding for a rejection of a candidate,^[4][12] and since 1986 it has also meant a mark against someone or a critical comment.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to beat or strike with heavy blows.^[4][2]
• c. 1380 – to smash, and to kill in the phrase ding to death (obsolete).^[4]
• before 1500 – noun, a heavy blow.^[4]
• 1614 – to throw violently, to hurl.^[4]
• 1755 – Johnson: to dash with violence; to bluster.^[10]
• 1907 – American slang, to hit with a bullet.^[4]
• 1922 – noun, a dent or minor blemish.^[4]
• 1949 – noun, a rejection of a candidate.^[4][12]
• 1986 – noun, a critical comment or mark against someone.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause minor surface damage to; to dent: She dinged the bumper backing out of the garage.^[8][5]
2. (dialectal) To strike, beat or knock.^[8][4][7]
3. (dialectal) To throw violently; to dash or fling.^[8][4]

Noun

1. A small dent or other minor surface damage.^[8][4][7]
2. (dialectal) A blow or knock.^[8][4][7]
3. A rejection, or a critical comment or mark against someone.^[4][12]

ding² ringing sound

Etymology

The ringing sound is imitative of a small bell.^[4][7][6][8] Barnhart and Etymonline think the verb may have been taken from ding-dong,^[13][5] and the OED notes the earlier noun “ding-ding”.^[4] The American Heritage Dictionary sees it as partly an alteration of din,^[14] and the OED and Collins say it was influenced by that word.^[4][15] Weekley thought it perhaps the same word as the verb meaning to strike, and the two ideas meet in a ding-dong struggle;^[16] the OED notes that some later uses of that verb are associated with this one, because of the sound of struck metal.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Representing the ringing sound of a bell: about 1578, as an interjection.^[4] The Shorter Oxford dates the verb, in the sense "to din into a person", to the mid 16th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart finds an adverbial use in Shakespeare's As You Like It.^[13] The verb meant to din something into someone; from the late 16th century it also meant to speak with tiresome persistence;^[7][8] the noun meant a loud prolonged noise, a din, from 1750.^[4] The sense of ringing like a bell is recorded from about 1792,^[4] and Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1819, in Washington Irving's Sketch Book.^[13][5] The noun for a single bell-like sound followed in 1837,^[4] and is now often the alert sound of a computer or phone.^[4] From that, since 1994, to ding someone has meant to contact them by text or phone.^[4][12]

Timeline

• c. 1578 – interjection, the ringing of a bell.^[4]
• 1750 – noun, a loud prolonged noise, a din.^[4][13]
• c. 1792 – verb, to resound like a bell.^[4]
• 1819 – to sound as metal does when struck (Irving).^[13][5]
• 1837 – noun, a ringing sound like that of a bell.^[4]
• 1857 – verb, to ring a bell.^[4]
• 1994 – verb, to contact someone by text or phone.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a ringing sound like a bell; to clang.^[8][15][4]
2. To ring a bell or make it sound.^[15][4]
3. To repeat something tiresomely; to din it into someone.^[8][7][15]
4. (informal) To contact someone by text message or phone.^[4][12]

Noun

1. A ringing sound like that of a bell, or one imitating it, as on a computer.^[8][15][4]

Interjection

1. Used to represent the sound of a bell.^[4][7]