juggle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English jogelen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French jogler (“to play tricks, sing songs”), also jugler,^[4][3][5] from Late Latin ioculō, which replaced Latin ioculor (“to jest”).^[6][4][3] The Latin verb comes from ioculus (“a little joke”), a diminutive of iocus (“joke”),^[7][5][8] the source of joke and jocular;^[9][3] the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *yek-.^[7] Etymonline, Barnhart, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the English verb partly as a back-formation from juggler,^{[3][9][5][10]} and the Middle English Dictionary says its form was influenced by jogelour.^[2] According to Barnhart, the agent noun goes back to late Old English gēogelere (“magician, conjuror”) (before 1100) and was reshaped as juglur after Anglo-French jugelur, from Old French jogleor, from Latin ioculātor (“joker”).^[9] The French verb is now jongler,^[3] and the Late Latin one is also the source of Italian giocolare.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To amuse people with jesting, clowning and tricks: 1377, in the B-text of Langland's Piers Plowman, where the narrator regrets that he cannot play the tabor or trumpet, tell stories, or Iape ne iogele.^[4][2] Barnhart dates this record about 1378,^[9] and Etymonline puts the word in the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

By about 1400 the verb also meant to put someone under a spell, or to deceive.^[2][3][9] From about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, it was used of a conjuror's tricks of legerdemain.^[4][3] Tyndale used it from 1528 for playing tricks in order to cheat; the transitive sense "to deceive, cheat" follows in 1531.^[4] The sense "to change or convey by trickery" is recorded from about 1590, in Greene's Friar Bacon.^[4][9] The noun, a conjuring trick and so an imposture, appears in 1664 in Henry More,^[4][8] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "a trick by legerdemain" and "an imposture; a deception".^[11] In 16th-century slang the verb could also mean to have sex (1560, in Becon).^[12] The sense now usual, tossing and catching several objects so that some are always in the air, is recorded only from 1892;^[4] the Oxford Dictionary of English notes that the current senses date from the late 19th century.^[10] Baseball used the verb from 1873 for a fielder mishandling the ball without dropping it.^[4] The figurative sense of keeping several things going at once, with skill, followed in 1897,^[4] and that of balancing several commitments in 1935;^[4] Etymonline dates figurative use of careers and husbands to 1940.^[3] In Scotland and parts of England the verb also meant to cheat or swindle, and in Scotland, Yorkshire and the south-west to shake or jumble together.^[13]

Timeline

• 1377 – to entertain with jesting, buffoonery and tricks (obsolete by 1600).^[4][2]
• c. 1400 – to deceive, to put someone under a spell.^[2][3][9]
• c. 1440 – to perform conjuring tricks.^[4]
• 1528 – to play tricks so as to cheat.^[4]
• 1531 – transitive, to deceive, trick or cheat.^[4]
• before 1592 – to convey or change by trickery.^[4][9]
• 1664 – noun, a conjuring trick; a deception.^[4][8]
• 1873 – in baseball, to mishandle a ball without dropping it.^[4]
• 1892 – to toss and catch several objects continuously.^[4]
• 1897 – to manipulate several things at once.^[4]
• 1935 – to handle or balance several things skilfully.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To keep several objects in the air by repeatedly tossing and catching them, as an entertainment: She can juggle five clubs at once.^[14][7][4]
2. To keep several activities going at the same time, often with difficulty: He juggles two jobs and evening classes.^[14][7][4]
3. To manipulate facts, figures or accounts so as to give a false picture; to practise deceit.^[14][8][4]
4. To hold or catch something unsteadily; to fumble a ball without dropping it.^[7][4]
5. (obsolete, 1377–1600) To entertain people with jesting, clowning and tricks.^[4][5][2]

Noun

1. An act of juggling.^[14][8]
2. A trick or deception; a piece of manipulation.^[8][4][11]

Word family

• jugglingly
• unjuggled
• outjuggle
• juggler
• jugglery

Related words

• joke
• jocular

Usage notes

A noun juggle meaning a block of timber cut to a set length, recorded from 1875, has a separate source: the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compare joggle, of which it is perhaps an alteration.^[4][8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins