Jinx

[Douglas G. Wilson]

I saw a discussion of the etymology of "jinx" on Dave Wilton's Web site.
Our esteemed colleagues G. Cohen and B. Popik are quoted (from "Comments on
Etymology" in 2001).

I have reviewed the pertinent "CoE" article, and I'm not satisfied that the
etymology of "jinx" = "hoodoo"/"hex" has been elucidated completely.
Perhaps some of the local scholars have insights, or newly discovered material.

I can see three obvious candidates for the ancestral word.

(1) "Jynx" meaning "magical charm" or so, apparently favored by major
dictionaries. I agree with Cohen and Popik that the word was too
obscure/obsolete around 1908 to be a likely candidate (although obviously
there are conceivable scenarios which might explain such a development,
several of which were presented on the Web).

(2) "Jinks" as a surname, apparently favored by Cohen and Popik. Of the
literary examples given, however, only one (1859) seems to portray a Jinks
character who has a devilish or ill-omened role. This seems too large a
time-gap ... during which time there were other Jinkses (of course Jinks is
after all a real surname) including two celebrated "Captain Jinks" military
characters who do not embody attributes suitable for development into the
modern "jinx" (IMHO).

(3) The mild oath "by Jink[s]", which was equivalent to "by gosh"/"by
golly". I believe this is a version of "by Jingo[es]" or "by jing[s]" (both
quite venerable, used by A. Lincoln and by Mark Twain respectively) and not
really equivalent to the surname except in form. I don't see why it should
have furnished the modern sense of "jinx" (although I do find one instance
of "by jinx" so spelled from the 19th century). This would be like saying
"he put a gosh on me" for "he put a curse/hex on me".

I have a few other odd notions which I can present later if there's any
interest.

Can anybody fill in the record or further justify some proposed etymology?

-- Doug Wilson