doorbell

Etymology

It is a compound from English door + bell.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bell inside a house that is rung from outside to show that someone is at the door: 1765, in the London Chronicle.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1800,^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1807^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1805–15.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline describes the early doorbell as a bell at a door, or one worked by a knob outside, for anyone who wanted to be let in.^[3] The OED's definition follows the device from a bell to the later electric chime or buzzer.^[2] From 1828 the word was also used of a bell on a shop door that rings when the door opens, to alert the staff.^[2][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records it for the push button that works the bell and for the sound of the bell itself.^[5] The American English verb "to canvass from door to door, especially for votes or contributions", is recorded in the Random House dictionary.^[4] In American slang doorbell was also a woman's nipple, in a 1973 novel by Joseph Wambaugh.^[6]

Timeline

• 1765 – a bell rung from outside by someone at the door.^[2]
• 1828 – a bell on a shop door that rings when the door is opened.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bell, chime or buzzer at the outer door of a building, rung by a visitor, usually with a push button: We rang the doorbell twice before anyone answered.^[5][7][8][2]
2. The push button that works such a bell; also the sound it makes.^[5]
3. A bell fixed to a door, especially of a shop, that rings when the door is opened.^[5][2]

Verb

1. (US) To canvass from door to door, especially for votes or donations.^[4][9]

Related words

• door
• bell

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House