"presto chango" meaning in English

See presto chango in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Interjection

Etymology: From presto + rhyming variation of change. Etymology templates: {{m|en|presto}} presto, {{m|en|change}} change Head templates: {{en-interj|head=presto chango}} presto chango
  1. (informal) Indicates the suddenness of a change or transformation, as a magic trick in which one object appears to be suddenly transformed into another. Tags: informal Synonyms: presto changeo, presto change-o
    Sense id: en-presto_chango-en-intj-J6hPFsFT Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for presto chango meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "presto"
      },
      "expansion": "presto",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "change"
      },
      "expansion": "change",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From presto + rhyming variation of change.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "presto chango"
      },
      "expansion": "presto chango",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1929, Business Week, advertisement,\nJust one touch lets you go from black to a second color. Presto. Chango. Or back to black. Presto. Chango. Color copies have never been easier."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1937 April 24, Washington Post, page 12",
          "text": "PRESTO CHANGO! From a dreary, commonplace piece to a smart colorful chair shining with personality.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1978, Richard Rhodes, Holy Secrets, Doubleday, page 31",
          "text": "\"...An' presto-chango, you got yourself a twenty-eight-by-sixty-foot house.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983, Lois Lowry, Taking Care of Terrific, Houghton Mifflin Children's Books, page 158",
          "text": "Tom nodded solemnly. \"Presto Chango,\" he said. Then he looked at the policeman again. \"My name is Joshua Cameron,\" he announced, and the policeman wrote that down.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Candace Sherk Savage, Witch: The Wild Ride from Wicked to Wicca, Sterling Publishing, page 8",
          "text": "Watch and before your eyes, presto chango, a capital crime of the most hideous sort will be turned into a superstition,....",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Mike Lutz, God Every Day: 365 Life Application Devotions",
          "text": "Jesus is the ultimate stain lifter. He removes the stain of our sin, and presto, chango!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicates the suddenness of a change or transformation, as a magic trick in which one object appears to be suddenly transformed into another."
      ],
      "id": "en-presto_chango-en-intj-J6hPFsFT",
      "links": [
        [
          "suddenness",
          "suddenness#English"
        ],
        [
          "change",
          "change#English"
        ],
        [
          "transformation",
          "transformation#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Indicates the suddenness of a change or transformation, as a magic trick in which one object appears to be suddenly transformed into another."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "presto changeo"
        },
        {
          "word": "presto change-o"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "presto chango"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "presto"
      },
      "expansion": "presto",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "change"
      },
      "expansion": "change",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From presto + rhyming variation of change.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "presto chango"
      },
      "expansion": "presto chango",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English interjections",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1929, Business Week, advertisement,\nJust one touch lets you go from black to a second color. Presto. Chango. Or back to black. Presto. Chango. Color copies have never been easier."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1937 April 24, Washington Post, page 12",
          "text": "PRESTO CHANGO! From a dreary, commonplace piece to a smart colorful chair shining with personality.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1978, Richard Rhodes, Holy Secrets, Doubleday, page 31",
          "text": "\"...An' presto-chango, you got yourself a twenty-eight-by-sixty-foot house.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983, Lois Lowry, Taking Care of Terrific, Houghton Mifflin Children's Books, page 158",
          "text": "Tom nodded solemnly. \"Presto Chango,\" he said. Then he looked at the policeman again. \"My name is Joshua Cameron,\" he announced, and the policeman wrote that down.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Candace Sherk Savage, Witch: The Wild Ride from Wicked to Wicca, Sterling Publishing, page 8",
          "text": "Watch and before your eyes, presto chango, a capital crime of the most hideous sort will be turned into a superstition,....",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Mike Lutz, God Every Day: 365 Life Application Devotions",
          "text": "Jesus is the ultimate stain lifter. He removes the stain of our sin, and presto, chango!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Indicates the suddenness of a change or transformation, as a magic trick in which one object appears to be suddenly transformed into another."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "suddenness",
          "suddenness#English"
        ],
        [
          "change",
          "change#English"
        ],
        [
          "transformation",
          "transformation#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Indicates the suddenness of a change or transformation, as a magic trick in which one object appears to be suddenly transformed into another."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "presto changeo"
    },
    {
      "word": "presto change-o"
    }
  ],
  "word": "presto chango"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.