Clink
wiktionary
From Middle English clinken, from Old English clincan (compare clynnan, clynian(“to sound; resound”)), from Proto-Germanic *klinganą(“to sound”). Cognates include Middle Dutch klinken and German klingen. Doublet of call.
Perhaps of onomatopoeic origin, as metal against metal.
From the Clink prison in Southwark, London, itself presumably named after sound of doors being bolted or chains rattling.
clink (third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked)
etymonline
clink (v.)
"to ring, jingle, give forth a sharp, metallic sound," early 14c., echoic (compare Dutch klinken, Old High German klingan, German klingen); perhaps a weakened form of clank. Transitive sense, "cause to produce a sharp metallic sound" is from late 14c. Related: Clinked; clinking.
clink (n.1)
"sharp, ringing sound made by collision of sonorous (especially metallic) bodies," c. 1400, from clink (v.).
clink (n.2)
"prison," 1770s, apparently originally (1510s) the Clynke on Clink Street in Southwark, on the estate of the bishops of Winchester. To kiss the clink "to be imprisoned" is from 1580s, and the word and the prison name might be cognate derivatives of the sound made by chains or metal locks (see clink (v.)).
