jungle English · revision 7692

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1776}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈd͡ʒʌŋ.ɡ(ə)l/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is borrowed from Hindi jangal, desert, forest, wasteland, uncultivated ground,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(MWU 2024) from Sanskrit jāṅgala, arid, sparsely grown with trees,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(NODE 1998) a word of unknown origin, perhaps cognate with Lithuanian žagaras, a dry branch.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) Hobson-Jobson notes that the Sanskrit word occurs chiefly in medical treatises.^(Yule & Burnell 1903)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Waste ground, land overgrown with tangled vegetation, as in parts of India: 1776.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==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.^(Yule & Burnell 1903) It was extended to similar tracts in other lands, especially tropical, by 1849.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) The figurative sense, a wild tangled mass, is from 1850, in Carlyle's ''Latter-day Pamphlets'',^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) and a place of ruthless competition or violence from Upton Sinclair's novel ''The Jungle'' (1906).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) A camp for hoboes is American slang from 1908.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) A fast electronic dance music of the early 1990s is a recent sense.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1776 – Indian waste or forest land.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1849 – other tropical forests.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1850 – a tangled mass.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1906 – a place of ruthless struggle.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1908 – a hobo camp.^(OED 1989)

+ * early 1990s – a kind of dance music.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Land thickly overgrown with [[tropical]] vegetation.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Any dense, tangled growth or mass.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A place of intense, ruthless [[competition]] or struggle: ''the concrete jungle''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A type of fast electronic dance music.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[jungly]]

+ * [[junglelike]]

+ * [[jungled]]

+ * [[underjungle]]

+ * [[asphalt jungle]]

+ * [[jungle bunny]]

+ * [[jungle cat]]

+ * [[jungle cock]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[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.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}