Other forms: tingling, tingles
To tingle is to feel a slight prickling in the skin. Fingers tingle, a tingle of excitement, make your scalp tingle.
The physical sensation comes from nerves recovering — cold hands warming, a limb waking after being sat on — and is called paraesthesia in medicine. Figuratively it names the physical edge of anticipation: a tingle of excitement, tingling with anticipation. Note tingly; and that the word is probably related to tinkle, both suggesting something small and repeated.
1verbtingleTo feel a slight prickling in the skin.
“My fingers tingled as they warmed up after the snowball fight.”
2nounsensationSuch a sensation.
“She felt a tingle of excitement as the curtain rose.”
tingle is a prickling sensation.
Middle English tinglen is of uncertain origin, probably related to tinkle. Both suggest a small repeated sensation, one heard and one felt.
Middle English
tinglen
English, today
tingle
Built from
From Middle English tinglen, of unknown origin. Possibly from Middle English tingen (“to tink”) + -len, equivalent to ting + -le. Alternatively, possibly a variant of tinclen (“to tinkle”) or from Old English tinclian (“to tickle”). More at tinkle. Compare also West Frisian tingelje (“to tinkle”), Dutch tingelen (“to tinkle, jingle”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA