jingo

Meanings

1. 1
   interj

   dated: used as a mild oath, usually in the phrase by jingo

   By jingo, the missing money was hidden under the floorboards.

2. 2
   noun

   a person who loudly supports extreme nationalism and an aggressive foreign policy

   The newspaper's loudest jingo demanded military action at once.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Jingo was originally an exclamation used by conjurors while performing a trick and later appeared in “by jingo!”, an expression showing that someone was in earnest. A music-hall song supporting Benjamin Disraeli’s 1878 policy of resisting Russia used the expression in its chorus. Jingoism appeared that same year as a term for aggressive patriotism expressed through vociferous support for a policy favouring war.

The interjection by jingo is recorded from the seventeenth century, probably as a euphemism for Jesus. The political noun arose from its use in an 1878 British music-hall song supporting a belligerent policy toward Russia, and then broadened to an aggressive nationalist.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary