I love this word. Two images come to mind when I hear jangly. First, I picture a dozen silver and gold bracelets on a woman’s arm, clanging musically against each other as she talks animatedly, moving her hands about. The bracelets sound all jangly. Second, I think of jangly nerves. As in, “Marilyn was on her second espresso that morning and her nerves were jangly.” According to the Oxford Dictionary, to jangle is to “make or cause to make a ringing metallic sound, typically a discordant one.” And isn’t that exactly what happens with your nerves after a boost of caffeine? You have a feeling of discord within. Etymology online adds that it comes from the Old French verb, jangler in the 13th century, and means “gossip, slanderous conversation, dispute”. I see that applying to nerves too. When we’re hopped up on caffeine, it feels as though our body is in a slanderous conversation with itself. We can’t sit still. Our nerves are jangly. What about you? What do you think of when you hear jangly? Thank you to Marilyn for inspiring this post. And side note, I have trouble envisioning Marilyn actually being jangly. She is far too poised a person for that. But I thank her for letting me use the imagery of her Facebook post as a launching pad.
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I love the word jangly too! It’s right up there with skittering, spastic and goose pimply because they’re adjectives that demand you take notice.
Yes Judy! “adjectives that demand you take notice.” May have to add that as a category option for these posts. 🙂
I mention it when teaching presentation skills or training skills to women (since I have yet to have a guy in class who wears noisy bracelets) so they do not jangle and cause distraction.
Ah, good thinking Heidi. I hadn’t thought of it as a distraction, but I can certainly see your point.
What an interesting word jangly. It brought me to a scene in Auntie Mame. The scene takes place on stage where Roslyn Russell wears a bunch of jangly bracelets the scene where her friend is giving a talk and the rest of the stage is supposed to be quiet it was very disruptive. I thought the bracelets or jingling, I love the word jangling much better.