jungle

English

Etymology

1776, borrowed from Hindustani جَن٘گَل (jaṅgal) / जंगल (jaṅgal), from Sanskrit जङ्गल (jaṅgala, “arid, sterile, desert”).

Pronunciation
  • audio (US)(file)
  • IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒʌŋ.ɡ(ə)l/
  • Rhymes: -ʌŋɡəl

Noun

jungle (countable and uncountable, plural jungles)

  1. A large, undeveloped, humid forest, especially in a tropical region, that is home to many wild plants and animals; a tropical rainforest.
  2. (South Asia) Any uncultivated tract of forest or scrub habitat.
  3. (colloquial) A place where people behave ruthlessly, unconstrained by law or morality.
    It’s a jungle out there.
    • 1984, Barry Ellem, Doing Time, page 25:
      The first-timer just doesn't know what's going on when he gets to jail. […] It's a jungle, you've got to look after yourself first.
    • 2005, Laura Knight-Jadczyk, The High Strangeness of Dimensions, Densities, and the Process of Alien Abduction:
      But of course, that excludes the narcissistic delusionals, the deliberate frauds, and the pathological cases of multiple personality. They are all out there in New Age Land, and it's a jungle!
  4. (figurative) A tangled mess.
    • 1858–1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:
      […] lost in such a jungle of intrigues, pettifoggings, treacheries, diplomacies domestic and foreign […]
  5. (slang) An area where hobos camp together.
  6. (music, uncountable) A style of electronic dance music and precursor of drum and bass.
    • 1994 September, Simon Reynolds, “Above The Treeline”, in The Wire‎:
      Always more multiracial than other post-Rave scenes, Hardcore got “blacker” as hiphop, Ragga, dub and Soul influences kicked in, and by 93 it had evolved into Jungle. By this point, Hardcore/Jungle (the terms remain interchangeable) was universally scorned by dance hipsters and banished from the media.
    • 2013, Simon Reynolds, Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, page 291:
      In large part, happycore was the result of an exodus of white ravers from the jungle scene, in reaction to the influx of black youth and the attendant mood change from bonhomie to surliness.
  7. (golf, slang) Dense rough.
    Synonym: tiger country
    • 2006, Rob Blumer, Rex Chaney, Essential golf instruction, page 167:
      Hitting from the Jungle. The rough at some courses is just weeds and sparse grass, as often as not giving a player a decent lie to shoot from. But grass above four inches is nasty. It will grab your club and alter your shots.
  8. (vulgar, slang) A hairy vulva.

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Adjective

jungle (not comparable)

  1. (Of musical beat, rhythm, etc.) resembling the fast-paced drumming of traditional peoples of the jungle.
    • 1939 January 8, The Tribune, Manila, page 13, column 2:
      She gave her first performance at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles, offering festival dances, Moro tribal rituals, primitive jungle rhythms and rice harvest ceremonials.
    • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 9:
      Somewhere further up the valley a bunch of hippies were getting back to nature by loading up on mind altering chemicals and overwhelming their senses with five million decibels of digital bass and jungle beats.

See also

Further reading

Alemannic German

Etymology

From Jung (“boy”).

Verb

jungle

  1. (Uri) to give birth to a male

References

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English jungle, Hindi जंगल (jaṅgal), Sanskrit जङ्गल (jaṅgala, “arid, sterile, desert”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /djɔnɡlə/, [ˈd̥jɔŋlə]

Noun

jungle c (singular definite junglen, plural indefinite jungler)

  1. jungle

Inflection
Declension of jungle
common
gender		 Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative jungle junglen jungler junglerne
genitive jungles junglens junglers junglernes

Further reading

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English jungle, from Hindi जंगल (jaṅgal) and Urdu جنگل (jangal), from Sanskrit जङ्गल (jaṅgala, “arid, sterile, desert”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈdʒʏŋ.ɡəl/
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: jun‧gle

Noun

jungle m (plural jungles, diminutive jungletje n)

  1. jungle, dense tropical rainforest [from early 19th c.]
    Synonym: rimboe
    • 1825 January 8, “Uittreksels van Amerikaansche nieuwspapieren”, in De Curaçaosche Courant, volume XIII, number 1, page 2:
      Het eerste gevecht was een aanval op een detachement door vele duizenden der Burmesen, in den mond van een jungle, waerdoor zy gedekt waren.
      The first battle was an attack on a detachment by many thousands of the Burmese, in the mouth of a jungle, which covered them.

Derived terms
  • junglecommando
  • junglegids
  • junglemuziek
  • jungletocht

Descendants

French

Etymology

English jungle.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ʒœ̃ɡl/, (rarer, dated) /ʒɔ̃ɡl/
  • Audio (France, la jungle)(file)
  • Audio (France)(file)
  • Audio (Belgium)(file)

Noun

jungle f (plural jungles)

  1. jungle (large humid forest)
  2. (derogatory) jungle (dog eat dog place, lawless area)
    Synonym: zone de non-droit

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

Romanian

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [ˈʒuŋɡle]

Noun

jungle f

  1. inflection of junglă:
    1. indefinite plural
    2. indefinite genitive/dative singular
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