shindig

English

WOTD – 25 July 2016

La Walse (The Waltz, published 1810) by James Gillray, collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, England, UK

Etymology

Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of shindy, or from Scottish Gaelic sìnteag (“jump, leap”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪn.dɪɡ/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: shin‧dig

Noun

shindig (plural shindigs)

1. A noisy party or festivities.
   • 1861, “Mr. and Mrs. Rasher”, in Godey's Magazine‎^[1], volume 62, page 348:

     They'd get up a regular shindig, if it wasn't for making too much noise.

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XIX, in Babbitt, section III:

     "That's a darn shame. Well–I suppose you're waiting for somebody to take you out to some big shindig, Sir Gerald." "Shindig? Oh. Shindig. No, to tell you the truth, I was wondering what the deuce I could do this evening […] "

   • 1950, 45:01 from the start, in Sunset Blvd.:

     There was bound to be a New Year's shindig going on in his apartment down on Las Palmas.

   • 2023 May 1, David Segal, “In Transylvania, Anyone With $200 Can Live Like a King. (Well, One Specific King.)”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     Which suggests that the man in the middle of what will be the planet’s splashiest shindig this weekend far prefers the stillness and privacy he finds about 1,500 miles away from London, on unpaved roads and rugged woods near the Carpathian Mountains.

2. A noisy argument.

Translations

noisy party or festivity

• Bulgarian: шумна веселба (šumna veselba)
• German: Rummel (de) m, Fete (de) f, Party (de) f, Festival (de) n
• Polish: biesiada (pl) f
• Portuguese: arrasta-pé (pt) m
• Scottish Gaelic: hòro-gheallaidh f
• Spanish: gran fiesta / celebracion

noisy argument

• Bulgarian: шумен спор (šumen spor)
• German: Krach (de) m, Auseinandersetzung (de) f
• Spanish: fuerte altercado

Further reading

• shindig on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dishing, hidings