Jingo
Dwarf Male
Not affiliated with an Alliance
J I N G O
“We don’t want to fight, but by Jingo if we do —
we’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men,
we’ve got the money too.”
A LONDON MUSIC-HALL SONG, 1878
“By Jingo” is a swear word for people with manners — two hundred years of saying it because you wanted to blaspheme and couldn’t. Then a journalist named Holyoake used that song to coin jingoism, and meant it as an insult. The people singing did not appear to mind. The word has belonged to them ever since.
I’d like it back. Give me a century.