Etymologically
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jungle

Etymology and origin of the English word jungle

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1776

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈd͡ʒʌŋ.ɡ(ə)l/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hindi jangal, desert, forest, wasteland, uncultivated ground,[2][3][4][5] from Sanskrit jāṅgala, arid, sparsely grown with trees,[3][2][6] a word of unknown origin, perhaps cognate with Lithuanian žagaras, a dry branch.[2][3] Hobson-Jobson notes that the Sanskrit word occurs chiefly in medical treatises.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Waste ground, land overgrown with tangled vegetation, as in parts of India: 1776.[3][8][2]

Semantic evolution

Hobson-Jobson explains that the Indian word meant strictly waste, uncultivated ground, then such ground covered with shrubs and grass, and in Anglo-Indian use a forest or wild growth.[7] It was extended to similar tracts in other lands, especially tropical, by 1849.[2][8] The figurative sense, a wild tangled mass, is from 1850, in Carlyle's Latter-day Pamphlets,[3][2] and a place of ruthless competition or violence from Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle (1906).[3][2] A camp for hoboes is American slang from 1908.[8][2] A fast electronic dance music of the early 1990s is a recent sense.[9]

Timeline

  • 1776 – Indian waste or forest land.[3]
  • 1849 – other tropical forests.[2]
  • 1850 – a tangled mass.[3]
  • 1906 – a place of ruthless struggle.[3]
  • 1908 – a hobo camp.[8]
  • early 1990s – a kind of dance music.[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Land thickly overgrown with tropical vegetation.
  2. Any dense, tangled growth or mass.
  3. A place of intense, ruthless competition or struggle: the concrete jungle.
  4. A type of fast electronic dance music.

Word family

  • jungly
  • junglelike
  • jungled
  • underjungle
  • asphalt jungle
  • jungle bunny
  • jungle cat
  • jungle cock
  • law of the jungle

Usage notes

In 1873 Fitzedward Hall wrote that jungle, derived from Sanskrit through the living languages of India, could be regarded as good English.[2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Jungle.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/jungle. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·