jangle

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒæŋɡl̩/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒæŋɡ(ə)l/
• Rhymes: -æŋɡəl
• Hyphenation: jang‧le

From Middle English janglen (“to talk excessively, chatter; to talk idly, gossip; to nag; to complain, grumble; to argue, debate; to discuss, talk; to talk indistinctly, jabber; to make a noise or outcry; of a bird: to chatter, twitter”) [and other forms],[1] from Old French jangler (“to chatter, gossip; to argue noisily; to bawl”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Frankish *jangelon (“to jeer”) (compare Middle Dutch jangelen (“to whine”), though the Oxford English Dictionary finds this improbable) and ultimately imitative.[2]

jangle (third-person singular simple present jangles, present participle jangling, simple past and past participle jangled)

1. (transitive)
   1. To cause (something) to make a rattling metallic sound.
      • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, OCLC 760858814, [Act III, scene i]:

        Now ſee what noble and moſt ſoueraigne reaſon / Like ſweet bells iangled, out of time, and harſh, /That vnmatcht forme, and ſtature of blowne youth / Blaſted with extacie, […]

   2. To express or say (something) in an argumentative or harsh manner.
   3. (figuratively) To irritate or jar (something).

      The sound from the next apartment jangled my nerves.

2. (intransitive)
   1. To make a rattling metallic sound.
      • a. 1678, Tho[mas] Manton, “[The Transfiguration of Christ.] Sermon II.”, in Christs Temptation and Transfiguration, Practically Explained and Improved in Several Sermons, London: [s.n.], published 1685, OCLC 1227569337, pages 43–44:

        A ſincere Heart that would ſerve God with his beſt, findeth more in a duty, than he could expect: and by Praying gets more of the fervency and Ardours of praying, as a Bell may be long a raiſing, but when it is up it jangleth not as it did at firſt.

   2. (archaic) To speak in an angry or harsh manner.
      • 1745, “The Prophesie of Waldhave”, in The Whole Prophecies of Scotland, England, France, Ireland and Denmark; […], Edinburgh; London: […] M[ary] Cooper, […], OCLC 837638822, page 25:

        What jangleſt thou Jedburgh? thou jags for nought, / There ſhal a guilful groom dwell thee within, / The towre that thou truſts in, as the truth is, / Shal be traced with a trace, trow thou none other: […]

      • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Fatherland in Danger”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], OCLC 1026761782, book III (The Girondins), page 184:

        Prussian Trenck, the poor subterranean Baron, jargons and jangles in an unmelodious manner.

      • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Working Aristocracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, OCLC 191225086, book II (The Ancient Monk), page 108:

        [T]hat brutish god-forgetting Profit-and-Loss Philosophy and Life-theory which we hear jangled on all hands of us, in senate-houses, sporting-clubs, leading-articles, pulpits, and platforms, everywhere as the Ultimate Gospel and candid Plain-English of Man's Life, from the throats and pens and thoughts of all but all men!

   3. (archaic) To quarrel verbally; to wrangle.

      Synonym: squabble

      • c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, OCLC 61366361; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], OCLC 1154977408, [Act II, scene i]:

        Good witts will be iangling, but gentles agree, / This ciuill warre of wittes were much better vſed / On Nauar and his Bookmen, for heere tis abuſed.

      • 1840 May 8​, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, OCLC 874416277, page 58:

        Homoiousion, Homoousion, vain logical jangle, then or before or at any time, may jangle itself out, and go whither and how it likes: this is the thing it all struggles to mean, if it would mean anything.

      • 1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] XXV”, in A Shropshire Lad, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, published 1906, OCLC 863109715, stanza 1, page 36:

        The time of year a twelvemonth past, / When Fred and I would meet, / We needs must jangle, till at last / We fought and I was beat.

   4. (obsolete) Of a person: to speak loudly or too much; to chatter, to prate; of a bird: to make a noisy chattering sound.
      • [1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Tale of the Nonnes Preest”, in The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English), [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868, folio xcvii, verso, column 1:

        Nay (qƿ [quoth] yͤ foxe) but god yeue him miſchãce / That is ſo indiſcrete of gouernance / That iangleth, whã that he ſhuld haue pees

        Nay (said the fox) but God gives him misfortune / That is so indiscreet of governance / That jangles when he should hold his peace]

      • 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Nightingale, and Other Soft-billed Song-birds”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], volume V, new edition, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], OCLC 877622212, page 293:

        It was uſual then about midnight, when there was no noiſe in the houſe, but all ſtill, to hear the two nightingales jangling, and talking with each other, and plainly imitating men's diſcourſes.

• janglery (obsolete)

From Middle English jangle (“gossip, idle talk; a dispute”),[3] from Anglo-Norman jangle and Old French jangle (“gossip, idle talk; a dispute”), from Old French jangler (“to chatter, gossip; to argue noisily; to bawl”): see further at etymology 1. Later uses are derived directly from the verb.[4]

Sense 3 (“sound typified by undistorted, treble-heavy electric guitars”) is said to derive from a line in the song Mr. Tambourine Man (1965) by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (born 1941): “Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me / In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you.”[5]

jangle (plural jangles)

1. A rattling metallic sound; a clang.
   • 1873 August, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[I. Tales of a Wayside Inn.] The Theologian’s Tale. Elizabeth.”, in Aftermath, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., OCLC 15121058, stanza II, page 45:

     E'en as she spake they heard the musical jangle of sleigh-bells, / First far off, with a dreamy sound and faint in the distance, […]

   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, “The Holiday Aunt”, in Jessamy, 1st US edition, Indianapolis, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 872333885, page 8:

     Jessamy tugged the scrolled iron bellpull which hung down on one side of the gate. Somewhere behind, she could hear an answering jangle.

2. (figuratively)
   1. The sound of people talking noisily.
   2. (archaic) Arguing, contention, squabbling.

      Synonyms: altercation, bickering

      • 1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, “That Church Governement is Set Downe in Holy Scripture, and that to Say Otherwise is Untrue”, in The Reason of Church-governement Urg’d against Prelaty […], London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, […], OCLC 4610908, 1st book, page 8:

        [I]t may be juſtly ask't, whether Timothy by this here written might know what was to be knowne concerning the orders of Church-governours or no? If he might, then in ſuch a cleere text as this may we know too without further jangle; […]

      • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i:

        But now Sir Peter if we have finish'd our daily Jangle I presume I may go to my engagement at Lady Sneerwell's?

      • 1840 May 8​, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, OCLC 874416277, page 58:

        Homoiousion, Homoousion, vain logical jangle, then or before or at any time, may jangle itself out, and go whither and how it likes: this is the thing it all struggles to mean, if it would mean anything.

3. (music, attributively) A sound typified by undistorted, treble-heavy electric guitars, played in a droning chordal style, characteristic of 1960s folk rock and 1980s indie rock music.

   Synonym: jingle-jangle

   • 2008, Rikky Rooksby, Play Great Guitar: Brilliant Ideas for Getting More out of Your Six-string, Oxford, Oxfordshire: The Infinite Ideas Company, →ISBN, page 228:

     If you like ‘jangle guitar’—where the guitar parts are chordal, arpeggiated and rhythmic—listen to players like Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Peter Buck with R.E.M. (Life’s Rich Pageant) or Johnny Marr with The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead).

A jangle is somewhat harsher than a jingle.

• jangle pop

• jingle

• jangle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• jangle (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia