jinx
[jingks]
- a person, thing, or influence supposed to bring bad luck.
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- to bring bad luck to; place a jinx on: The strike has jinxed my plans to go to Milwaukee for the weekend.
- to destroy the point of: His sudden laugh jinxed the host's joke.
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Origin of jinx
1910–15, Americanism; perhaps < Latin jynx wryneck (bird used in divination and magic) < Greek íynx
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for jinx
Contemporary Examples
Is it a jinx, like being put on the cover of Sports Illustrated?
Stolen By Jinx Jamison and Minx Malone The Madame X School of Sex series of short ebooks are steamy cheap buys.
Historical Examples
He asked me whose it was; and he asked me about you, and, by jinx!
Nan of Music MountainFrank H. Spearman
"It might be, if there were any such animal as a jinx," laughed Darrin.
Dave Darrin on Mediterranean ServiceH. Irving Hancock
By jinx, when I heard the Municipals were coming, I was scared they'd get him for sure.
Police Your PlanetLester del Rey
That's why you get it cheap—if you'll take it and chase out the jinx that's been wished on me.
AthalieRobert W. Chambers
Ah kin help yo all ward off evil and jinx; ah kin help yo all git a job; ah kin help yo all ovah come the ruination uv yo home.
jinx
- an unlucky or malevolent force, person, or thing
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- (tr) to be or put a jinx on
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Word Origin
C20: perhaps from New Latin Jynx genus name of the wryneck, from Greek iunx wryneck, the name of a bird used in magic
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for jinx
n.
1911, American English, originally baseball slang; perhaps ultimately from jyng "a charm, a spell" (17c.), originally "wryneck," a bird used in witchcraft and divination, from Latin iynx "wryneck," from Greek iynx.
Most mysterious of all in the psychics of baseball is the "jinx," that peculiar "hoodoo" which affects, at times, a man, at other times a whole team. Let a man begin to think that there is a "jinx" about, and he is done for for the time being. ["Technical World Magazine," 1911]
The verb is 1912 in American English, from the noun. Related: Jinxed; jinxing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper