Where did the phrase bi jingo come from?

Answer 1

Original answer: the devil

New answer: In the early 1980's in North Queensland (rural)individual icecreams or ice-block on a stick were referred to as "bi-jingo's". No idea why. Can clearly remember asking my mother to buy me a bi-jingo.

Answer 2

The expression "by Jingo" is apparently a that appeared rarely in print, but which may be traced as far back as to at least the 17th century in a transparent euphemism for "by Jesus". The OED attests the first appearance in 1794, in an English edition of the works of François Rabelais as a translation for the French par Dieu! ("by God!").

The form "by Gingo!" is also recorded in 18th century.

The expression "hey Jingo"/"hey Yingo" was also known in the vocabulary of illusionists and jugglers as a cue for magic appearance of objects (cf. "presto"). Martim de Albuquerque in his 1881 "Notes and Queries" mentions a 1679 printed usage of the expression.

Origins have also been claimed for it in languages that would not have been very familiar in the British pub: in Basque, for example, Jinko is a form of the word for "God". A claim that the term referred to Empress Jingū has been entirely dismissed.

The chorus of a 1878 song

We don't want to fight but by Jingo if we do,

We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too,

We've fought the Bear before, and while we're Britons true,

The Russians shall not have Constantinople.