tingelen

Forms

tingelen (tingelde, getingeld), a weak verb^[1][2] A variant tjingelen is also used, with a different feeling.^[1]

Etymology

It is imitative: the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal treats it as an onomatopoeia, and Franck–Van Wijk and Vercoullie agree.^[1][3][4] Van Veen and Van der Sijs make it an iterative of an imitative tingen.^[5] De Vries posits a verb ⟨*tingen⟩ from Kiliaan's ⟨tinghe/tanghen⟩, which he and Franck–Van Wijk read as ⟨tinghe-tanghen⟩, comparing tingeltangel.^[6][3]

Beside it stand tinkelen, tjingelen and tjinken, all sound words, comparable with Latin tinniō (“to ring”) and tintinnō (“to jingle”).^[6][3] The rhyming verbs klingelen and rinkelen may have helped shape it.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, in 1789, is a tinkling bell that suddenly reaches the ears of a sleeping nun and breaks her sweet dreams.^[1][5][7]

Semantic evolution

The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal gives three uses, which may be separate imitative coinages or transfers from one sense to another: a run of short, clear, faint sounds, such as a triangle makes (tjingelende triangel, 1840); a similar twinkling of light, as of stars, in part of the south (1873); and a tingling feeling, also southern, as in het vriest dat het tingelt aan de vingers, “it is freezing so that your fingers tingle” (1873).^[1] Both forms are used scornfully for poor piano playing, as early as 1841.^[1] Modern dictionaries keep the sound senses and the scornful one for playing the piano.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1789 – A tingelende klok “tinkling bell” is first recorded.^[1][7]
• 1840 – Tjingelen is used of a triangle.^[1]
• 1841 – Both forms are used scornfully of poor music-making.^[1]
• 1873 – Southern uses for twinkling stars and tingling fingers are recorded.^[1]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a series of short, clear sounds, to tinkle or jingle: de belletjes tingelden boven de deur.^[8][2]
2. To clink or rattle against each other.^[2]
3. To play the piano carelessly or badly: hij tingelde wat op de oude piano.^[8][2]

Related words

• tingeltangel
• tinkelen
• klingelen
• rinkelen

Usage notes

Several other verbs are spelled tingelen.^[1][9] A Flemish tingelen means to sting, burn or itch, and to tease; recorded by Kiliaan in 1599, it is formed from a noun tingel.^[1] Van der Sijs traces Negerhollands tengel “to nag” and Berbice Dutch tenggele “to tickle” to Dutch tengelen, tingelen “to sting; to tease”.^[10] Another tingelen, an imitative word, meant to hammer out the edge of a scythe (1861).^[1] In building, Van Dale uses tingelen for fitting laths (tengels), and as early as 1286 the accounts of the Watering of Blankenberge use tinghelen for filling the seams between planks of sluices and timber banks, probably from a noun tinghel “connecting lath”.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
2. ^ a b c d e Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; anw.ivdnt.org
3. ^ a b c d Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
4. ^ Vercoullie, Jozef (1925), Beknopt etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 3rd ed., 's-Gravenhage / Gent: Nijhoff / Van Rysselberghe & Rombaut
5. ^ a b Veen, P. A. F. van; Sijs, Nicoline van der (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd ed., Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Lexicografie
6. ^ a b c Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
8. ^ a b c d Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
9. ^ a b Pijnenburg, W. J. J., et al. (2001), Vroegmiddelnederlands woordenboek: woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling, Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie; gtb.ivdnt.org
10. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)