though it doesn't directly explain the shift in vowels form 'a' to 'o.'Īn Appropriation From Poetry What would explain the 'o' is a less likely theory: that the word came, intact, from the literary world.

Which seems likely, given the shape of most dongles. Schneck in the IEEE paper ' Persistent access control to prevent piracy of digital information': 'The etymology of 'dongle' is unclear, however the word may be a corruption of 'dangle,' as the device is a small unit that typically plugs into the printer port of a PC.' (Think onomatopoeia.) In his The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature, Steven Pinker groups 'dongle' as one of several terms that, likely by way of apt sound associations, 'have appeared out of the blue in recent decades' - among them bling, bonkers, bungee, dweeb, glitzy, gunk, and wonk.Ī Corruption of the Word 'Dangle' There's also the opposite theory: that the word, rather than spontaneously springing into being, is a distortion of a word that already existed. ('Probably an arbitrary coinage,' one reference sums it up, rather dismissively.) According to the book English Words: History and Structure, 'dongle' is one of a class of words that seem to have sprung, Athena-like, from the minds of their first utterers in a process of 'de novo creation.' Fellow arbitrary words, per this assessment: ditzy, gizmo, grungy, blurb, hanky-panky, and - a term whose existence can be considered 'arbitrary' in only the most clinical sense - flamdoodle.Ī Phonesthetic Coinage An extension of the 'arbitrary coinage' theory has to do with phonesthesia, or sound symbolism. Most dictionaries, the OED included, attribute the existence of 'dongle' to random inspiration on the part of an unknown neologizer. You're welcome.Īn Arbitrary Coinage One of the likeliest origin stories doesn't, actually, involve much of a story.

Below, some of the leading theories about the etymology of the word 'dongle,' from the expected (yep, ' dongle,' teehee) to the less so. But that hasn't stopped people from guessing. We don't know much, for sure, about the word that has been a source of so much frustration and controversy and, regardless, ubiquity. dangle.īut where did the weird word actually come from? That's a matter of debate - and, spoiler, of enduring mystery. So could a cellular air card.įor the most part, though, dongles have cords that hang off your computer, awkardly. Originally slang for a plug-in module to copy protected software, 'dongle' now refers to 'any small module that plugs in and sticks out of a socket.' A USB drive, technically, could be called a dongle. Trying Chromecast? You'll also be dongling. Want to track your fitness habits - or your dog's? Buy a dongle. Want to connect your laptop computer to a television? You'll need a dongle.

Dongle cord