jynx

plural jynges · alternative iynx · alternative iyng · alternative jyng

1. A bird, the wryneck, once thought a bird of ill omen (Jynx torquilla).

   The Jynx or Wryneck…I first heard this year on March 29.

   1708, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, XXVI, page 123

   4 more examples

   Where not a Silver Iyng, or Pigeon, fell To Pay the Markman.

   1649, George Daniel, Trinarchodia: Henry V, line ccxcv

   Jynx, the Wry-neck, or Emmet-hunter, or as some say, the Wag-tail.

   1706, “Jynx”, in John Kersey, editor, Phillips’s New World of Words

   Its sharp and harsh cry, resembling a repetition of 'Jynx', 'Jynx', 'Jynx'.

   1845, The Zoologist: A Miscellany of Natural History III, page 1,107

   A youth or females hold a bird, supposed to be the iynx, in their hands.

   1857, Samuel Birch, History of Ancient Pottery, volume I, published 1858, page 297

2. transferred senseA charm or spell.

   These are the Philtres, Allurements, Jynges, Inveiglements [les philtres, iynges, et attraictz], Baits, and Enticements of Love.

   ante 1693, Sir Thomas Urquhart (translator), François Rabelais (author), The Third Book of the Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, chapter i, page 23

   1 more example

   You can extend the idea of isograms to sentences that don't repeat any letters. Interestingly, there are several English sentences that use each letter exactly once. They're all pretty weird and either borrow from other languages or use acronyms that were later accepted as English words. For example: Veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck As I'm typing this, my word processor is marking each of the above words (save for “buck”) as spelled incorrectly, though I promise they're real words. Honest.

   2015 February 26, “CS106A Practice Midterm 2 Solutions”, in Stanford University, page 2

   Synonyms: jinx

3. One of an order of spiritual intelligences in ancient “Chaldaic” philosophy.

   Then is the Intelligible Jynx; next which are the Synoches, the Empyreal, the Ætherial and the Material; after the Synoches are the Teletarchs…Intelligent Jynges do themselves also understand from the Father By unspeakable Counsels being moved so as to understand.

   1655, Thomas Stanley, The History of the Chaldaick Philosophy, published 1701, page 17/2