intj. (common).—Used in mild oaths: as BY JINGO! or BY JINGS. [HALLIWELL: a corruption of St. Gingoulph or Gingulphus; by others from Basque Jinkoa = God. Cf. Notes and Queries, 2 S. xii. 272, 336; 5 S. ix. 263, 400, x. 7, 96, 456; 6 S. i. 284, ii. 95, 157, 176, 335, iii. 78, iv. 114, 179.] Also BY THE LIVING JINGO.
1691–2. SWIFT, Actæon, in Gentlemen’s Journal, Feb., p. 24.
| Hey, JINGO! what a de’il’s the matter; | |
| Do mermaids swim in Dartford water? |
1764. O’HARA, Midas, ii. vi. Mid. By JINGO! well performed for one of his age.
1766. GOLDSMITH, The Vicar of Wakefield, ix. She observed, that, ‘BY THE LIVING JINGO, she was all of a muck of sweat.’
1773. GOLDSMITH, She Stoops to Conquer, v. 2. BY JINGO, there’s not a pond or a slough within five miles of the place, but they can tell the taste of.
1824. Atlanta Monthly, i. 141. He swore by George, BY JINGO and by Gemini.
1834. M. G. DOWLING, Othello Travestie, i. 6. It is the way, BY JINGO! you are right.
1836. M. SCOTT, Tom Cringle’s Log, v. Dem sell a me Peter, BY JINGO.
1848. Punch, xiv. 172. If I kill you it’s nothing; but if you kill me, BY JINGO it’s murder.
1850. F. E. SMEDLEY, Frank Fairlegh, xxvi. There’s the coach, BY JINGO.
1860. Chambers’s Journal, xiii. 233. ‘Uncle Bob, BY JINGO!’ said the boy.
1864. Press, 12 Nov. JENCO is Basque for the Devil and in the Basque Provinces there were of old Manichæans, who worshipped the evil spirit and naturally swore by him, hence we think the phrase [BY JINGO] may find a much more likely explanation [than St. Gingoulph].
1848. A. H. CLOUGH, The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich, iii., l. 244.
| With the lassie? | |
| With her? the piper exclaimed undoubtedly! BY GREAT JINGO! |
1876. C. H. WALL, trans. Molière, ii. 114. Gently if you please; BY JINGO, how skilful you are in giving clean plates!
1889. DRAGE, Cyril, ii. ‘Iñez de Ribera, BY THE LIVING JINGO!’ said he, half out loud.
1892. W. E. HENLEY and R. L. STEVENSON, Deacon Brodie, Tab. ii., sc. 2. BY JINGO! I’ll show them how we do it down South.
Subs. (political).—One of that party which advocated the Turkish cause against Russia, in the war of 1877–8. Hence, one clamorous for war; one who advocates a war-like policy. [In this sense taken directly from the refrain of a popular music-hall song (c. 1874), ‘We don’t want to fight, but BY JINGO if we do, We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money too!’] Hence JINGOISM = the theory and practice of the JINGOES.
1884. Graphic, 22 Nov. He is a more pernicious kind of JINGO than his predecessors.
1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 12 June. In the days when JINGOISM had to ba combatted and overcome.
1895. JOHN MORLEY, in The Times, 17 June, p. 7, col. 5. But then the hight honourable gentleman will ask, Have you proposed a statue to Cromwell from the point of view of JINGOISM?
