On the Word : Ringer

The word 'ringer' has 24 different meanings or connotations as a noun. I immediately consider it to mean "one who rings," which then leads me to consider how many verbal meanings of the word 'ring' exist, which it turns out is 57. Mixing these two definitions together, a 'ringer' could mean "one who gives out a resonant sound," "one who conveys an inherent quality," "one who tests the quality of a coin," and a whole host of others.

Etymologically, 'ringer' comes from the Old English "hringan" which means "to announce or celebrate by ringing bells;" however, a different use of the word comes from a different Old English word, "hring," a circlet of metal or other circular object. This use comes from the game of horseshoes, in which a ringer is a horseshoe which, after having been thrown, completely encircles the stake. Both Harry Truman and George H. W. Bush used to play this game at the White House. A similar game known as quoits (from which horseshoes probably derives) also uses the term 'ringer,' but in this case it represents a thrown metal disc which directly strikes a pin (in East Anglian quoits), due to the resulting ringing noise. Hence the two similar games contain the same term, but with separate histories. A different version of the game played in Pennsylvania - slate-board quoits - retains the horseshoe meaning of 'ringer' - in this case the thrown object, i.e. the quoit - is a rubber ring.

In horse racing, a "ringer" is a fast horse which surreptitiously replaces a slow one, and hence is considered an example of fraud. The term has since expanded to mean any athlete who is added to a team under false pretenses in order to increase the team's chances of winning; a student paid to take an exam for another student; and a musician hired to increase the capabilities of an orchestra (this last meaning does not necessarily connote fraud). Ultimately these uses of the term are the root of the phrase "to be a dead ringer for," meaning "to closely resemble" according to Wikipedia and Grammar-Monster, both of which also dismiss the alternative derivation of the phrase as being from the use of safety coffins. These were coffins meant to relieve taphephobia - the fear of being buried alive - by the use of a bell tied to the coffin, such that the one presumed dead could indicate to those above ground that he was still alive by pulling a mechanism and hence ring the bell. Grammar-Monster also claims that the use of a small child to swing upon the legs of one who has been hanged and thus ensure that the neck was broken is another folk etymology for the phrase - such a child was known as a 'dead ringer.' Perhaps I should have written this essay during the week of Halloween...

In British slang, a ringer is either a stolen car with its identification number replaced by that of a legitimate car, or is the criminal who has replaced the number. This activity is a more thorough version of cloning, where only the license plates are modified. A ringer will not only change the plates but also modify the vehicle registration certificate to match the three locations on the car where the VIN appears, and then also modify those locations (in the engine bay, inside the door, and on the windshield, at least as of 2022).

In Australian slang, a ringer is an expert in shearing sheep, being the fastest shearer in a wool shed. Most shearers can shear (remove the wool from) around 100 sheep per day, while the ringer can handle two to three times as many, and for this reason is also sometimes known as a "gun shearer." This appears to be a specific instance of the more general meaning of "ringer" in both Australia and New Zealand - i.e., an expert of any kind. You can hear the word being used in reference to shearing in the Australian folk song "The Bare Belled Ewe" from 1891, which was apparently inspired by the Shearers' Strike in Queensland of that year. The folk song was later retitled to "Click Go the Shears" before publication. Another use for the word in Australia is to denote a stock worker or cowboy, from the rounding up or encircling of cattle which is one of their jobs. Trainees on the cattle station need about four years of experience before they can claim to be ringers.

In animal conservation, a ringer is one who places rings around the legs of birds. These small metal rings contain a unique identification - usually an alpha-numeric code - as well as contact information. The bird is caught, banded, and then released, and data concerning the captured animal is recorded for the sake of future analysis. Some countries, if not all of them, require a ringer to pass a test and receive a license before they can engage in the activity - in England, for example, aspiring ringers travel to places such as the Isle of Lundy in the Bristol Channel to take the exam, demonstrating such skills as knowing the proper way to hold a bird during the process of ringing. In Europe, certification is regulated by a body known as EURING; the same organization also approves the manufacture of the metal rings.

Sometimes the word 'ringer' is confused with the word 'wringer.' This can lead to an "inappropriate" use of the word within certain idioms - for example, the phrase "to put through the ringer" meaning "to go through an ordeal" is "incorrect." This type of grammar mistake is known as an "eggcorn."

Ringer is also the name of a game using marbles, and is the game played in the National Marbles Tournament in New Jersey. Up to six players position themselves around a circle and attempt to knock marbles out of the circle, using their own marbles to do so. Each player collects the marbles he has eliminated, and the player who ends up with the most marbles wins the game. Versions of this game with slight modifications to the rules - for the benefit of younger players - are often played in the Cub Scouts.

Note : the text of this post will appear in my book Mindspillage, which can be pre-ordered.

Sources :

https://www.oed.com/search/advanced/Meanings?textTermText0=ringer&textTermOpt0=WordPhrase&textTermExactMatch0=true&tl=true, accessed 2024-11-11

https://www.oed.com/search/advanced/Meanings?partOfSpeech=verb&textTermText0=ring&textTermOpt0=WordPhrase&textTermExactMatch0=true&dateOfUseFirstUse=false&page=1&sortOption=AZ&tl=true, accessed 2024-11-11

https://www.etymonline.com/word/ringer, accessed 2024-11-11

https://www.etymonline.com/word/ring, accessed 2024-11-11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoes_(game)#Scoring, accessed 2024-11-11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quoits#East_Anglian_quoits, accessed 2024-11-11

https://www.quoitoutlet.com, accessed 2024-11-11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_idioms#R, accessed 2024-11-11

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ringer, accessed 2024-11-11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_ringer_(idiom), accessed 2024-11-11