ting

Etymology

The verb, inherited from Middle English tingen (“to ring”), is imitative,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} like tink, ding and ping;^[2][6][9] the OED suggests ring and sing as possible models and compares tingle.^[2] In the early devotional texts that first record it, forms in -g- and -k- alternate, as in tinkle and tingle.^[2] The OED compares Dutch tingen (19th century) and, more distantly, French tinter and Latin tinniō (“to ring”).^[2] The noun and interjection are formed from the verb.^[2][7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a small bell or a glass: to give a thin, clear ringing sound: about 1400, in Lyfe of Soule.^[2] Etymonline dates the verb to the late 15th century,^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1485–95.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From 1552 the verb was used transitively, to make a bell ring;^[2] from 1623 it was used of beekeepers who make a ringing noise by tapping on a pan or shovel to make a swarm settle,^[2] a practice the English Dialect Dictionary records in East Anglia as to ting bees.^[11] The interjection, imitating the sound, is recorded from 1579, usually doubled as ting ting,^[2] and the noun, the sound itself, from 1611, in Cotgrave's dictionary,^[2] or 1602 in Merriam-Webster.^[3] A clock that tings the hour is recorded from 1877.^[2] The reduplicated ting-tang appears in the 1670s, ting-a-ring in 1833 and ting-a-ling by 1879.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – of a bell or glass, to ring with a thin clear sound.^[2]
• 1552 – to make a small bell ring.^[2]
• 1579 – interjection, usually ting ting.^[2]
• 1611 – noun, a thin clear ringing sound.^[2]
• 1623 – to settle a swarm of bees by a ringing noise.^[2]
• 1877 – of a clock, to strike the hour.^[2]
• 1879 – ting-a-ling.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A high, clear, metallic sound, like that of a small bell or a glass lightly struck: the ting of a spoon against a cup.^[12][3][2]

Verb

1. To make such a sound: The shop bell tinged as she came in.^[12][3][2]
2. To cause a bell or glass to make such a sound.^[12][3][2]

Related words

• tink
• tinkle
• tingle
• ding
• ping
• ting-a-ling

Usage notes

The English Dialect Dictionary lists several unrelated dialect words spelled ting: a prong of a harrow or fork, a variant of tine (Devon); to tie or bind, in the West Country; to whip or scold, in Devon; and, in Shetland, a local council or law court,^[11] a spelling of thing in its old sense "assembly".^[12][11] Collins also records ting as a nonstandard form of thing.^[12] Separate borrowings from Chinese are spelled ting too: an open garden pavilion (1853)^[2] and a three-legged Bronze Age vessel (20th century).^[7][3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c 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)
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins