Dingbats — Where Did This Word Come From?

1895

The Boston Journal gives various theories as to the meaning of the word "dingbats."

One writer who spent his boyhood in Maine thinks it means to spank, because his mother when getting ready to use the slipper threatened to put the "dingbats" on him. From Wilbarham academy comes the explanation that it means the breakfast biscuit, which the students dispose of by sticking it to the under side of the table, throwing it at the heads of other students or eating it.

A Connecticut pupil states that to receive punishment at the hands of the teacher is known as "getting the dingbats." Two Philadelphians agreed that it means money, as in the sentence, "I've got the dingbats for it." But New Hampshire agrees with Maine that it means spanking, and so the majority appears to side with the maternal slipper.

It is from such "little acorns" that the tall tree of our almost cosmopolitan language has grown. We got "blizzard" from the west, "kuklux" from the south, "boom" from the ambitious cities, "crank" from the eccentric minds in every port of the country, "pantata" from Italy, "chalitza" from Russia. Dingbats is going to be a great convenience.