Wordsmith.org: the magic of words


A.Word.A.Day

About | Media | Search | Contact  


Home

Today's Word

Subscribe

Archives



Jan 30, 2019
This week’s theme
Words that have many unrelated meanings

This week’s words
gob
skelf
shingle
plenum
rede

Daily word @ your site
Add the daily word to your web page. It is free.
Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

shingle

PRONUNCIATION:
(SHING-guhl)

MEANING:
noun:1. A tile laid in overlapping rows to cover walls or roofs.
 2. A small signboard indicating a professional office. Used in the phrase “to hang one’s shingle”.
 3. A woman’s close-cropped haircut tapering from the back of the head to the nape.
 4. Waterworn pebbles found on a beach.
 5. A place where such pebbles are found.
verb tr.:1. To cover with shingles or to lay out something in an overlapping manner.
 2. To cut hair in a shingle.
 3. To squeeze or hammer puddled iron to remove impurities.

ETYMOLOGY:
For noun 1-3 & verb 1-2: From Latin scindula (a thin piece of wood). Earliest documented use: 1200.
For noun 4-5: Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1513.
For verb 3: From French cingler (to whip or beat), from German zängeln, from Zange (tongs). Earliest documented use: 1674.

USAGE:
“[Limited license legal technicians] apprentice under a lawyer for 3,000 hours before they hang their shingles.”
Robert Ambrogi; Who Says You Need a Law Degree to Practice Law?; The Washington Post; Mar 15, 2015.

“Some decisions are carefully constructed towers of logic framed in lists of pros and cons, shingled in trusted advice.”
G.P. Ching; The Grounded Trilogy Book One; Carpe Luna; 2014.

“Officers tracked the woman down using the car’s registration number and gave her advice that taking shingle from the beach was illegal.”
Woman Who ‘Stole’ Pebbles from a Beach; The Mirror (London, UK); Oct 2, 2013.

See more usage examples of shingle in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The power to command frequently causes failure to think. -Barbara Tuchman, author and historian (30 Jan 1912-1989)

What they say

“A.Word.A.Day, a rare exception to the usual blight on my mailbox”
Read more

The Wall Street Journal


More articles

Anu Garg on words

“A large vocabulary is like an artist having a big palette of colors. We don’t have to use all the colors in a single painting, but it helps to be able to find just the right shade when we need it.”

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise

© 1994-2025 Wordsmith