jingle bell

English

WOTD – 25 December 2022

Etymology

A medieval jingle bell from the Grand Duchy of Ryazan, now in Russia.

Jingle bells mounted on to a handle for use as a percussion instrument.

From jingle (“sound of metal, etc., clattering against itself”, attributively) +‎ bell.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɪŋɡl̩ bɛl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɪŋɡ(ə)l ˌbɛl/
• Hyphenation: jing‧le bell

Noun

jingle bell (plural jingle bells)

1. A small, hollow, spherical metal bell with a narrow slit opening or small holes, containing a loose ball or rod as a clapper, which is attached to a horse's harness as a signal, or (music) used as a musical instrument.

   Synonyms: cascabel, sleigh bell

   • 1857 September 15, James Lord Pierpont (lyrics and music), “The One Horse Open Sleigh”:

     Jingle bells, jingle bells, / Jingle all the way. / Oh! what fun it is to ride / In a one-horse open sleigh.

   • 1957 November 28, Joe Beal, Jim Boothe [disputed] (lyrics and music), “Jingle Bell Rock”‎^[1]performed by Bobby Helms, Decca Records:

     Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock / Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring

Translations

small, hollow, spherical metal bell with a narrow slit opening or small holes, containing a loose ball or rod as a clapper

• Arabic: جرس زلق ?
• Aragonese: cascavillo
• Aymara: suxu suxu
• Azerbaijani: qumrov, zəng (az), zınqırov (az)
• Basque: kaskabilo
• Belarusian: шархуны (šarxuny)
• Catalan: cascavell (ca) m, picarol (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馬鈴／马铃 (zh) (mǎlíng)

• Chuvash: xӑнкӑрма (xănk̬ărma)
• Czech: rolnička (cs) f
• Danish: bjælde (da) c
• Dutch: schelringen ?
• Esperanto: tintilo
• Estonian: kuljus
• Finnish: kulkunen (fi), tiuku (fi)
• French: grelot (fr) m
• Galician: axóuxere (gl) m, cascabel (gl) m
• German: Glöckchen (de) n, Schelle (de) f
• Hebrew: פעמוני מזחלת
• Icelandic: bjalla (is) f
• Japanese: スレイベル (surei beru), 鈴 (ja) (suzu)
• Korean: 방울 (ko) (bang'ul)
• Maltese: ġolġol
• Navajo: yooʼ diitsʼaʼí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dombjelle m or f

• Persian: زنگ دستی (fa)
• Polish: bubieniec m
• Portuguese: guizo (pt) m
• Quechua: chanrara
• Russian: бубенец (ru) m (bubenec)
• Spanish: cascabel (es) m, cascabillo (es) m
• Swedish: bjällra (sv) c
• Tagalog: baimbi
• Ukrainian: бубоне́ць (uk) ? (bubonécʹ)

Further reading

• jingle bell on Wikipedia.Wikipedia