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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

fangle en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

  • [ˈfæŋ.ɡl̩] without æ-raising
  • [ˈfɛ̃ŋ.ɡl̩] æ-raising
  • /ˈfæŋ.ɡəl/ without æ-raising
  • /ˈfɛ̃ŋ.ɡəl/ æ-raising
  • /ˈfeɪ̯ŋ.ɡəl/ æ-raising
  • [ˈfeɪ̯ŋ.ɡl̩] æ-raising

Etymology

From Middle English fangelen (verb), from fangel (“inclined to take”, adjective), from Old English *fangol, *fangel (“inclined to take”), from fōn (“to take, seize”). Compare Old English andfangol (“undertaker, contractor”), Old English underfangelnes (“undertaking, hospitality”), Middle English fangen (“to take, seize, catch”), German fangen (“to catch”). More at fang.

Meanings

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) To fashion, manufacture, invent, or create.
    • Jonathan Swift (1726), Gulliver's Travels, 1st edition: “But I have since found that the sea Yahoos are apt, like the land ones, to become new-fangled in their words, which the latter change every year; insomuch, as I remember upon each return to my own country their old dialect was so altered, that I could hardly understand the new.”
    • […]not hereby to control and new fangle the Scripture, God forbid, but to mark how corruption and apostasy crept in by degrees, and to gather up wherever we find the remaining sparks of original truth,[…] 1641, John Milton, Of Prelatical Episcopacy:
  2. (dialectal, obsolete) To trim showily; entangle; hang about.
  3. (dialectal, obsolete) To waste time; trifle.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
fangles Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
fangling Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
fangled Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
fangled Tense=Past lexicographic

Deriveds

newfangle · newfangled

fangle en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • [ˈfæŋ.ɡl̩] without æ-raising
  • [ˈfɛ̃ŋ.ɡl̩] æ-raising
  • /ˈfæŋ.ɡəl/ without æ-raising
  • /ˈfɛ̃ŋ.ɡəl/ æ-raising
  • /ˈfeɪ̯ŋ.ɡəl/ æ-raising
  • [ˈfeɪ̯ŋ.ɡl̩] æ-raising

Etymology

Back-formation from newfangled (adjective) as if new + fangle (noun). See newfangle.

Meanings

  1. (obsolete) A prop; a taking up; a new thing.
  2. Something newly fashioned; a novelty, a new fancy.
  3. A foolish innovation; a gewgaw; a trifling ornament.
  4. A conceit; whim.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
fangles Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

fingle-fangle