argle-bargle
English
Etymology
1808 Scottish,[1][2][3] from earlier argle (16th century), presumably from argue + -le (“(frequentative)”), though possibly from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Norse (Suio-Gothic) ierga[1] – possibly influenced by haggle[4] – plus rhyming reduplication, possibly from bargain, found in early variant aurgle-bargain (1720).[3][5]
Noun
- (slang) A verbal argument.
- 2013, United States v. Windsor, 544 U.S. 744, 799 (2013) (Scalia, J., dissenting)
- As I have said, the real rationale of today’s opinion, whatever disappearing trail of its legalistic argle-bargle one chooses to follow, is that DOMA is motivated by '"bare . . . desire to harm"' couples in same-sex marriages.
- 2013, United States v. Windsor, 544 U.S. 744, 799 (2013) (Scalia, J., dissenting)
Verb
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- (slang) To argue.
- 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Captain Knuckles Under”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 97:
- Last night ye haggled and argle-bargled like an apple-wife; and then passed me your word, and gave me your hand to back it; and ye ken very well what was the upshot. Be damned to your word!
Derived terms
Related terms
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 John Jamieson, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Tongue. p. 82
- ^ “Scalia's argle-bargle”, Ben Zimmer, Language Log, June 27, 2013
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Words in the Courtroom, from Mobspeak to "Argle-Bargle", Ben Zimmer, Word Routes, June 27, 2013
- ^ Word Detective, Issue of January 5, 2006, “Put up your duke's.”, Evan Morris.
- ^ “But ’tis a Daffin to debate, / And aurgle-bargain with our Fate.” —Allan Ramsay, Poems, “The Rise and Fall of Stocks, 1720. An Epistle to the Right Honorable my Lord Ramsay.”, p. 270