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.

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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