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A pingle is the little tab of a jigsaw puzzle piece or some other interlocking tab of a similar nature. Or so it was in common use in my family throughout my childhood in the 1990s and early 2000s (Pacific Northwest, USA). In fact, I can't recall ever using the word pingle and having someone (family or friend) need my clarification as to what I was referring. However, the dictionaries do not corroborate this definition. Webster's gives a couple definitions, and Oxford a few more, but none of them is remotely close to the above use that I thought everyone knew. Has anyone else heard the word pingle in a context outside those given by the dictionaries?

Peter Schilling
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  • If I read it somewhere I would assume it was a misspelling of "Pringle". – Hot Licks Aug 13 '17 at 19:11
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    A presidential pingle or a regular pingle? Seriously, I've never heard the word before, in any context, with any meaning. – Arm the good guys in America Aug 13 '17 at 19:35
  • A quick search for "jigsaw pingle" on Google does not turn up your definition at all in the first few pages, so I think it is likely that is not a widely used term. It may however be a regional usage - can you add a location for your childhood remembrances? – Dragonel Aug 13 '17 at 19:37
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    Sounds more like something out of the Kama Sutra. Which, incidentally, reminds me that, like plumbers, we refer to such things as male and female. – David Aug 13 '17 at 19:41
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    possible dup - https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/47667/what-do-you-call-the-interconnecting-bits-of-a-puzzle-piece-in-english – Phil Sweet Aug 13 '17 at 19:46
  • @PhilSweet Curses, you beat me to it! – Spencer Aug 13 '17 at 19:47
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    @PhilSweet: That's related, but it's not a duplicate--this question asks "Has anyone else heard the word pingle in a context outside those given by the dictionaries". It doesn't ask for an alternative expression with the same meaning. – herisson Aug 14 '17 at 04:18
  • When was your childhood? – Azor Ahai -him- Sep 12 '17 at 21:58
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    No. But I haven't got a better name for it. Perhaps we should start using pingle in this sense. – rjpond Sep 12 '17 at 22:23
  • It's not widely understood to mean anything. It would possibly be most often misheard as "Pringle", referring to the hyperbolic paraboloid potato-based snack. – Max Williams Oct 26 '17 at 12:51

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The OED has several definitions of pingle, one of which one is similar to the definition given by @R.Dye in his answer, since deleted.

Sc. To exert oneself, work hard or laboriously; to struggle, esp. against adversity; to toil for a living. Chiefly Sc. a. intr. To strive, contend, vie; to quarrel. Also trans. with infinitive.

b. trans. To compete fiercely with; to vie with, rival. Obs.

Sc. To be hard-pressed; to be troubled, worried, or oppressed.

  1. intr. Chiefly Sc. To work in a trifling or ineffectual way; to meddle or have to do with in a petty way; to waste time, dally. a. intr. Now Eng. regional (chiefly north.). To pick at or play with one's food; to eat with little appetite, nibble

    b. trans. Eng. regional (south.). To pick at or toy with (one's food). Now rare.

Also pingle-pan:

A small metal pan or shallow cooking pot, usually having a long handle; a saucepan

Also, OED

A small enclosed piece of land; a paddock, a close

I offer this simply because pingle is a lovely word, and we should have the definitions on the record. I agree with @jlovegren that your meaning of the word was probably coined by your family.

Note: I need to clean this up, but have a plane to catch and I can't until early next week**. I will also look for definitions in a dictionary without a pay wall.

Laurel
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Could 'pingle' have been bastardized from 'pintle'? 'Pintle' and 'gudgeon' are the terms for the male and female parts of a hinge used for attaching a rudder to a boat or a shutter to a window frame. The analogy with the tab and slot on a jigsaw puzzle piece is obvious.

jdthood
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Probably the word was coined in your family or some other particularized context. If you are working on a jigsaw puzzle together with people it would be easy to coin vocabulary on the spot to talk about features of the jigsaw puzzle, because there is near-complete information. They can read your mind and then know what the word means, even the first time you ever use it.