Dictionary

argle-bargle en · NOUN

Etymology

First documented in English in 1822, from Scots (where first recorded in 1808), from earlier argle (“argue obstinately, wrangle”) used in English since 16th century, presumably from argue + -le (frequentative suffix), though possibly from Old Norse (Suio-Gothic) ierga – possibly influenced by haggle – plus rhyming reduplication, possibly from bargain, found in early variant aurgle-bargain (1720).

Meanings

1. (countable, slang, uncountable) A verbal argument.
   • Wendell and I have had our share of argle-bargles about the morality of hunting. 1992, Rebecca Ward, Grand Deception, page 43:
   • As I have said, the real rationale of today’s opinion, whatever disappearing trail of its legalistic argle-bargle one chooses to follow, is that DOMA is motivated by '"bare . . . desire to harm"' couples in same-sex marriages. 2013, United States v. Windsor, 544 U.S. 744, 799 (2013) (Scalia, J., dissenting)

Forms

wikipedia: John Jamieson

argle-bargle en · VERB

Etymology

First documented in English in 1822, from Scots (where first recorded in 1808), from earlier argle (“argue obstinately, wrangle”) used in English since 16th century, presumably from argue + -le (frequentative suffix), though possibly from Old Norse (Suio-Gothic) ierga – possibly influenced by haggle – plus rhyming reduplication, possibly from bargain, found in early variant aurgle-bargain (1720).

Meanings

1. (slang) To argue.
   • Last night ye haggled and argle-bargled like an apple-wife; and then passed me your word, and gave me your hand to back it; and ye ken very well what was the upshot. Be damned to your word! 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Captain Knuckles Under”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 97:

Forms

Deriveds

argle-bargle morble whoosh

Relateds

argol-bargol · argie-bargie · argy-bargy

Synonyms

wringle-wrangle

wikipedia: John Jamieson