the.com/tinkle
a sound so cute we used it to dodge saying the word 'urine'.
means To make a light, high, ringing sound — like small bells or falling ice — or, in nursery-soft slang, to urinate.
from An imitative word, English to its core — 'tinkle' is just the sound it names, a thinner, tinier cousin of 'tink' and 'tinkle's older sibling 'tingle.' This kind of word, where the noise becomes the name, is called onomatopoeia. The bathroom sense came much later as a euphemism, borrowing the innocent jingle to soften something we'd rather not say plainly.
- origin
- Imitates a small ringing bell, 1600s onward
- bladder code
- Nursery euphemism for peeing since the 1900s
- global reach
- Hindi 'tinkle' means a comics magazine for kids
- sound science
- High-frequency sounds register as smaller, lighter, cuter
tinkle bell magazine — indian children's magazine founded in 1981, still in publication with over 400,000 readers
tinkle app — anonymous social network launched in 2013, allows users to post and share anonymously in communities