Zing
/zɪŋ/noun
A sharp, lively, or exciting quality; also a brief, high-pitched sound.
Did you know?Zing is one of those vivid expressive words whose exact origin is uncertain, but its snap-and-buzz feel helped make it a perfect modern English sound-symbolic word.
Etymological Timeline
19th Century
English
zing
“A sharp, buzzing sound; later, a lively or exciting quality.”
19th Century
English
zing
“Used as an expressive sound word, probably imitative or sound-symbolic rather than inherited from a single older root.”
Earlier Germanic background
Proto-Germanic
*sengwaną
“To singe or burn; a distant cognate behind English singe.”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sengʷʰ-
“To burn or singe, the ancient root behind words for scorching and burning in Germanic and related languages.”