Etymology
1. 1819, "to sound as metal when struck," possibly abstracted from
ding-dong (1659), of imitative origin. The verb meaning "to deal heavy blows" is c.1300, probably from O.N.
dengja "to hammer." Meaning "dent" is 1960s.
Dinger "something superlative" (e.g.
humdinger) is from 1809, Amer.Eng.
Ding-a-ling "one who is crazy" is 1935, from notion of hearing bells in the head.
2. From Middle English dingen, dyngen (strong verb), from Old English *dingan (“to ding”), from Proto-West Germanic *dingwan, from Proto-Germanic *dingwaną (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- (“to beat, push”).
3. Related to Old English denġan, denċġan (“to ding, knock, beat, strike”, weak verb) and Old Norse dengja (“to hammer”, weak verb); both from Proto-Germanic *dangijaną (“to beat, hammer, peen”), causative of *dingwaną.
4. Cognate with Icelandic dengja (“to hammer”), Swedish dänga (“to bang, beat”), Danish dænge (“to bang, beat”), German tengeln, dengeln (“to peen”). See: Middle English '
dingen', Proto-Germanic '
*dingwaną', Proto-Germanic '
*dangijaną', Icelandic '
dengja', Swedish '
dänga', Danish '
dænge', German, old spelling '
tengeln'.