zingo, int.

zingo
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zingo_int%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zingointerjection

## Earlier version

- zingo, int. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the interjection zingo mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the interjection zingo. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

This word is used in North American English.

### How common is the interjection zingo?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.0016
1920 | 0.0015
1930 | 0.0016
1940 | 0.0016
1950 | 0.0018
1960 | 0.0018
1970 | 0.0018
1980 | 0.0014
1990 | 0.0015
2000 | 0.0014
2010 | 0.0013

### How is the interjection zingo pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪŋɡəʊ/
ZING-goh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪŋɡoʊ/
ZING-goh

### Where does the interjection zingo come from?

Earliest known use

1900s

The earliest known use of the interjection zingo is in the 1900s.

OED's earliest evidence for zingo is from 1906, in Daily Californian.

zingo is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zing int., ‑o suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zinger, n. 1906–
2. Zingg, n. 1941–
3. zingho, n. 1743
4. zingiber, n.?1720–
5. zingiberaceous, adj. 1821–
6. zingily, adv. 1951–
7. zinginess, n. 1938–
8. zinging, n. 1921–
9. zinging, adj. 1915–
10. zingingly, adv. 1952–
11. zingo, int.1906–
12. zingy, adj. 1938–
13. Zinjanthropus, n. 1959–
14. zinke, n. 1773–
15. zinnia, n. 1761–
16. zinnober green, n. 1879–
17. zinnwaldite, n. 1850–
18. zino, n. 1982–
19. Zinovievite, adj. & n. 1936–
20. Zinoviev letter, n. 1924–
21. Zion, n. Old English–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
< zing int. + ‑o suffix.

## Meaning & use

colloquial (chiefly North American).

1. 1906–
   Representing the sudden appearance or occurrence of something. Cf. zing int.
   1. 1906

      > First Bakersfield would bingle and then would come an error somewhere in Portersville's make up. Then—zingo! And with the horsehide somewhere out in the alkali, the boys in grey would joyfully chase each other around the corners.

      Daily Californian 8 January 3/2
   2. 1914

      > Just when he was bursting with happiness because he was going to be a real big leaguer and one of us—zingo! he was back where he started.

      Saturday Evening Post 17 January 7/1
   3. 1970

      > Zingo, another pair of jokers..bust in.

      New Yorker 17 October 40/3
   4. 1995

      > I didn't have a clue how quick a shot like that could come at you. He had it, and then zingo, there it was.

      J. Davidson in D. Irvin, In Crease vii. 142
   North American English colloquial and slang
   1. zingo 1906–
      Representing the sudden appearance or occurrence of something. Cf. zing, int.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪŋɡəʊ/
ZING-goh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪŋɡoʊ/
ZING-goh

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Frequency

zingo typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zingo is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zingo, int., 1910–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1910 | 0.0016
1920 | 0.0015
1930 | 0.0016
1940 | 0.0016
1950 | 0.0018
1960 | 0.0018
1970 | 0.0018
1980 | 0.0014
1990 | 0.0015
2000 | 0.0014
2010 | 0.0013

zingo, int. was revised in March 2021.

zingo, int. was last modified in July 2023.