29 October 2016
rinky-dink
[ring-kee-dingk] Slang.
adjective
1. inconsequential, amateurish, or of generally inferior quality; small-time:
a rinky-dink college; He plays with some rinky-dink team.
2. outmoded or shabby; backward; antiquated:
a rinky-dink airline.
noun
3. a person or thing that is rinky-dink.
Origin of rinky-dink
1910-1915; rhyming compound (perhaps based on alteration and nasalization of rickety ); cf. ricky-tick
Dictionary.com
Word Origin and History for rinky-dink
adj.
1913 (from 1912 as a noun), said to be carnival slang and imitative of the sound of banjo music at parades [Barnhart]; cf. ricky-tick “old-fashioned jazz” (1938), but early records suggest otherwise unless there are two words. The earliest senses seem to be as a noun, “maltreatment,” especially robbery:
So I felt and saw that I was robbed and I went to look after an officer. I found an officer on the corner of Twenty-fifth street and Sixth avenue. I said, “Officer, I have got the rinky-dink.” He knew what it meant all right. He said, “Where? Down at that wench house?” I said, “I guess that is right.” [testimony dated New York August 9, 1899, published 1900]
And cf. this chorus from the “Yale Literary Magazine,” Feb. 1896:
Rinky dinky, rinky dink,
Stand him up for another drink.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Slang definitions; phrases for rinky-dink
rinky-dink
adjective
(also ricky-tick) Inferior; cheap; crummy: described by federal attorneys as rinky dink and a very strange document/ its deserted beaches, summer houses, and ricky-tick towns (1913+)
noun
Cheap and gaudy merchandise; dreck, junk (1912+ Carnival)
Used merchandise; secondhand articles : Let’s go see what sort of rinky-dink the Salvation Army has this week (1913+)
A small, cheap nightclub, cabaret, etc; honky-tonk: as she was called when she played the rinky-dinks (1912+)
A deception; swindle; the runaround: Don’t give me the rinkydink (1912+)
Related Terms
ricky-tick
The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Anagram
kinky rind
dry kink in
Today’s quote
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
– Franz Kafka
On this day
29 October 529BC – International Day of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, responsible for the Cyrus Cylinder, which has been called the world’s first charter of human rights. The Cyrus Cylinder praised the munificence of King Cyrus and denounced the conquered Babylonian King Nabodinus as an oppressor of the people. It extols King Cyrus as a benefactor of the people, who liberated them from Nabodinus, repatriated them, restored temples and improved their lives.
29 October 1929 – ‘Black Tuesday’, stock market crash leads to the Great Depression. Investors dumped 16 million shares and the market crashed a further 12%, losing $30 billion in two days.
29 October 1956 – Israel invades Egypt after President Nasser announces he is nationalising the Suez Canal, starting the Suez Crisis.
29 October 1969 – Creation of the ARPANET, predecessor of the internet, when the first host-to-host communication is sent. ARPANET stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network which was operated by the U.S. Department of Defense.
29 October 1982 – Lindy Chamberlain found guilty of murdering her baby daughter, Azaria, after a jury dismissed her claim that a dingo took the baby. Her husband, Michael, was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder. She spent 3 years in jail, before being released. Eight years after the trial, her conviction was overturned. In 1992, her and Michael were acquitted and received $1.3 million in compensation from the Australian government for false imprisonment. There have been four inquests, with the latest being held 2012, with the finding that a dingo did take the baby.