jingle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ginglen, also gingelen,^[2][3][4] of imitative origin.^{[5][4][3][6][7][8]} The OED compares dingle, tinkle, Dutch jengelen and German klingeln,^[5][4][9] which goes back to Old High German klingilōn, a frequentative.^[4] According to the OED there appears to be no original connection with jangle,^[5][4][6] which Barnhart notes is recorded from about 1300 in the sense "to chatter";^[6] the MED, Hoad and the Shorter Oxford still compare the two,^[2][8][10] and Weekley notes that they were paired in jingle-jangle, jingle now being felt as a lighter form of the same sound.^[11] Skeat took it as a frequentative from a base allied to chink.^[12] The noun is from the verb.^{[5][4][6][13]}

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a ringing sound: in Chaucer's General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (1387–95), where the Monk's bridle could be heard gynglen in a whistlynge wynd as cleere / And eek as loude as dooth the chapel belle.^[2][5][6] The spelling with g- lasted into the 19th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The verb was used transitively, to make something jingle, from 1508.^[5] The noun followed about 1600 for the sound itself (1599 in Merriam-Webster and Barnhart, 1600 in Ben Jonson for the OED),^[7][6][5] and in the 1610s for a thing that jingles, such as a small bell or the metal discs of a tambourine.^[4][5] From the 1640s both verb and noun were applied to words chosen for their sound: to play with words or rhyme for effect (1642), a catchy repetition of sounds in verse or prose (1640s or 1661), and of verse to sound with alliteration or rhyme (1670).^[5][4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "correspondent sounds" and quoted Dryden's scorn for those who "call conceits and jingles wit".^[13] The advertising sense, a short catchy verse or tune in a commercial, is recorded from 1930.^[5][4] Other uses were the slang jingle-boy, a coin (about 1600), and jingle-brains, a wild, thoughtless person (1700),^[4][14] Australian slang jingle for money (1906),^[5] and a two-wheeled one-horse cart used in Ireland, Cornwall and Australia (1806).^[5][14]

Timeline

• 1387–95 – verb, to make a ringing sound, in Chaucer.^[2][5][6]
• 1508 – verb, to make something jingle.^[5]
• 1599 – noun, a jingling sound.^[7][6] The OED's first quotation is from 1600, in Ben Jonson.^[5]
• 1615 – something that jingles, such as a small bell.^[5][4]
• 1642 – verb, to play with words for their sound; to rhyme.^[5]
• 1661 – a catchy repetition of sounds in verse or prose.^[5] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s.^[4]
• 1806 – a two-wheeled one-horse cart.^[5]
• 1906 – Australian slang, money.^[5]
• 1930 – a short verse or song in an advertisement.^[5][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a light, repeated ringing or clinking sound, as of coins or keys knocking together: The bells on the harness jingled as the horse trotted.^[15][7][5]
2. To cause something to make such a sound: He jingled the coins in his hand.^[15][7][5]
3. Of verse, to sound catchy and repetitive through rhyme, rhythm or alliteration.^[15][7][5]

Noun

1. A light ringing or clinking sound: the jingle of spurs on the stairs.^[15][7][5]
2. A short, catchy verse or tune, especially one used in advertising.^[15][5]
3. A catchy repetition of sounds in verse or prose; a simple, sing-song rhyme.^[7][5]
4. Something that jingles, such as a small bell or one of the metal discs of a tambourine.^[7][5]

Word family

• jingly
• jingler
• jinglingly
• ajingle
• jingle bell
• jingling Johnny

Related words

• jangle

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b 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)
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins