int., sb. and a. Also 7 jeingo. [Appears first c. 1670 as a piece of conjuror’s gibberish, usually hey or high jingo!, prob. a mere piece of sonorous nonsense with an appearance of mysterious meaning. In 1694 by jingo occurs in Motteux’s transl. of Rabelais, where the Fr. has par Dieu: this, being contemporary with the conjuror’s term, may be presumed (though not proved) to be the same word, substituted, as in many other cases, for a sacred name: cf. by Golly, Gock, Gom, Gosh, Jabers, etc. In Scotland, by jing (or jings) has long been in common use.
A recent conjecture, since Jingo began to attract attention, would identify it with the Basque word for ‘God,’ given by Van Eys and Larramendi as Jinko, Jainko (Yinko, Yainko), Jincoa, Jaincoa; the suggestion being that this may have been caught up from Basque sailors. Such an origin is not impossible, but is as yet unsupported by evidence. The grotesque notion that the word is short for St. Gengulphus is merely a joke of the author of the Ingoldsby Legends.]
A. interj. and sb.
I. † 1. (Usually Hey or High Jingo!) A conjuror’s call for the appearance of something: the opposite of Hey presto!, by which a thing is bidden to be gone. Hence, an exclamation of surprise at the appearance of something. Obs.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 34. He … falls a flinging it out of one hand into the other, tossing it this way and that; lets it run a little upon the Line, then tantus, high jingo, come again.
1672. Pasquil on Stair Family, in Bk. Scot. Pasquils (1868), 180. Jeingo! the taws. Presto, begon: a mace.
1679. Oldham, Sat. Jesuits, IV. (1685), 89. Where spiritual Jugglers their chief Mast’ry shew: Hey Jingo, Sirs! What’s this? ’tis Bread you see; Presto be gone! ’tis now a Deity.
1707. Fenton, Fair Nun. He … turns it round and round, and eyes it, Heigh jingo, worse than ’twas before!
1722–30. Ramsay, Fables, Monk Miller’s Wife. [He] Cries, Rhadamanthus husky mingo, Monk, horner, hipock, jinko, jingo, Appear in likeness of a priest.
2. By jingo! a vigorous form of asseveration. Also intensified, by the living jingo! colloq. or vulgar.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. lvi. 219. By jingo [Rab. Par Dieu], quoth Panurge, the Man talks somewhat like, I believe him.
1760. Murphy, Way to Keep Him, I. ii. Their husbands care no more for them, no, by jingo, no more than they care for their husbands!
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., ix. One of them … expressed her sentiments … in a very coarse manner when she observed, that by the living jingo she was all of a muck of sweat. Ibid. (1773), Stoops to Conq., V. ii. By jingo, there’s not a pond or slough within five miles of the place, but they can tell the taste of.
1800. W. B. Rhodes, Bomb. Fur., I. (1830), 8. Does he, by jingo?
1837. Marryat, Dog-fiend, xxx. No, by the living jingo! not till he treats us.
1878. G. W. Hunt, Song (Chorus), We don’t want to fight, yet by Jingo! if we do, We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, and got the money too.
1888. J. Payn, Myst. Mirbridge, xiii. That was a parting shot he took at you, by jingo!
II. [Derived from the expression ‘by Jingo!’ in the refrain of the music-hall song, quoted in sense 2, 1878, which became the Tyrtæan ode of the party ready to fight Russia in 1878.]
3. A nickname for those who supported and lauded the policy of Lord Beaconsfield in sending a British feet into Turkish waters to resist the advance of Russia in 1878; hence, one who brags of his country’s preparedness for fight, and generally advocates or favors a bellicose policy in dealing with foreign powers; a blustering or blatant ‘patriot’; a Chauvinist.
1878. G. J. Holyoake, in Daily News, 13 March, 3/4. The Jingoes in the Park. Ibid. The Jingoes—the new tribe of music-hall patriots who sing the jingo song.
1879. Truth, 22 May. The Jingoes ought to rejoice and be glad that their ‘tall talk’ did not drive us into a war with Russia last year.
1880. Grant Duff, in 19th Cent., April, 667. Our interest in Russia is that the Muscovite Jingoes should learn a little more geography.
1881. Gentl. Mag., Jan., 46. The Jingo is the aggregation of the bully. An individual may be a bully; but, in order to create Jingoism, there must be a crowd.
1897. Ld. Salisbury, in Times 19 Jan. A well-working arbitration system would be an invaluable bulwark to defend the Minister from the jingoes.
1898. Times, 18 Jan., 6/1 (N. Y. Corresp.). A school of politicians … who, like the jingoes, are apt to use the word American aggressively, as the jingoes do.
4. The jingo spirit or policy personified.
1898. L. Stephen, Stud. Biogr., I. iii. 104. Nobody … could be less given to the worship of Jingo.
B. adj.
† 1. [from sense A. 2.] Exhibiting vulgar dash; suggestive of the man who asseverates By jingo!
1859. Millais, Lett., 28 April, in Life (1899), I. 312. It is very good (well painted), but egregiously vulgar and commonplace, but there is enough in it of a certain ‘jingo’ style to make it a favourite.
2. [from sense A. 3.] Of or pertaining to the political jingo; characterized by jingoism.
1879. Truth, 22 May. The consummation of the Jingo policy.
1879. Scotsman, 1 Dec., 4. In the height of the Jingo fever in London, mobs, carefully organised, broke the windows of Mr. Gladstone’s house.
1882. Daily News, 19 July, 5/5. He [M. Lockroy] is intensely Jingo, very hostile to M. de Freycinet Ibid. (1896), 20 Jan., 7/6. Sentiment in Washington is overwhelmingly Jingo.
1900. G. C. Brodrick, Mem. & Impr., 198. The Imperialism of the so-called ‘Jingo’ party, which seemed to measure national greatness by the constant annexation of new territories.
Hence Jingo v. trans., to drive by the jingo spirit; Jingodom, the realm or domain of jingoes; Jingoesque a., jingo in style or manner; Jingoish a. = JINGO B. 2.
1898. Daily News, 28 Feb., 5/7. A member of the Cabinet stated in an interview to-day that President McKinley … would not be jingoed into war.
1895. Nation (N. Y.), 19 Dec., 441/3. The resemblance of Jingodom in this to an Indian village is very remarkable.
1885. Glasgow Herald, 3 Aug., 6/2. The Continental press is … essentially … Jingoesque.
1892. Goldw. Smith, in 19th Cent., Sept., 348. There is nothing more jingoish in tone than were the speeches of Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell.
1896. Nation (N.Y.), 3 Dec., 421/3. Jingoish ideas of America’s past and future.
