What does dingbat mean?
A dingbat is, informally, a silly or scatterbrained person — a label typically delivered with a wink rather than real contempt, as in calling a well-meaning but absent-minded friend a lovable dingbat. The word has a second, entirely unrelated life in printing and graphic design, where a dingbat is any small ornamental symbol used to decorate text: stars, arrows, pointing hands, fleurons, and the like. In this sense it appears in phrases such as 'dingbat font,' most famously Zapf Dingbats, the 1978 typeface that bundled hundreds of such symbols into digital form. The two senses coexist without confusion because context almost always makes clear whether people or printed ornaments are meant. Playful in tone when describing people and purely functional in design contexts, 'dingbat' remains a colorful and useful addition to both everyday vocabulary and the vocabulary of typography.
A person regarded as silly, eccentric, or foolish (informal).
"That amiable dingbat left his keys in the refrigerator again."
Usually teasing or affectionate rather than seriously insulting; chiefly North American.
A small decorative typographic symbol, such as a star, arrow, or fleuron, used to ornament printed or digital text.
"The newsletter separated each article with a row of dingbats."
Neutral technical usage common in design and publishing; see also 'dingbat font.'
Standard regular plural; especially common in the typographic sense, where pages may contain many dingbats.
"The typeface included over six hundred dingbats."
The famous 'Zapf Dingbats' typeface, released in 1978, turned these humble printer's ornaments into one of the most-installed fonts on early personal computers.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dingbat
The origin of 'dingbat' is obscure. It emerged as American slang in the nineteenth century, apparently as a fanciful coinage, perhaps influenced by 'ding,' an older English word for a blow or a noisy clatter, though this connection is speculative. Its earliest recorded sense was roughly 'a thing whose name one cannot recall' or a generic gadget, before it came to denote a foolish person and later, by the twentieth century, a printer's ornamental symbol.
How dingbat is actually used
When applied to people, 'dingbat' is informal and usually carries an affectionate or teasing connotation rather than a genuinely insulting one. In its typographic sense it is a neutral technical term common among designers and printers. The word is chiefly North American in the 'foolish person' sense.
Easily confused with dingbat
A dingo is a wild dog native to Australia, whereas a dingbat is either a foolish person (informal) or a typographic ornament.