Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. very strong ale.

1638		R. Brathwait Barnabees Journal III X6: I drunk Stingo / With a Butcher and Domingo.
c.1650		‘A Cup of old Stingo’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 141: Being barrell’d up, they call it a cup / Of dainty good old Stingo.
1685		G. Meriton In Praise of York-shire Ale 29: Such Stingoe, Nappy, pure Ale they had found.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Stingo humming, strong Liquor.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 37: Burnt Brandy and Yorkshire Stingo.
1713		W. King York Spy 9: I’d [...] call’d for a Pint of Sir John Barleycorn’s best Stingo.
1725		N. Ward Amorous Bugbears 42: With Nog and Stingoe crown the Day’s delight.
1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 176: Father, Sir Jacob, might not we have a tankard of stingo above?
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 79: He best can understand their linguo [sic] / And tell ’em where to find good stingo.
1786		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Bozzy and Piozzi’ Works (1794) I 370: One nipperkin of stingo.
1795		Will of Charles Prentiss in Hall (1856) 322: To him who occupies my study, / I give for use of making toddy, / A bottle full of white-face Stingo.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 104: It’s water’s like wine, but he must be a flat / Who’d not sooner drink Yorkshire Stingo than that.
1811		J. Poole Hamlet Travestie III vi: Hamlet, your health! Ha! this is famous stingo!
1821		Phelam O’Gimblet 24: Time and stingo so bother’d his sight, / He scarce knew a P from a Q.
1835		Comic Almanack Oct. 32: Now’s the time by jingo for brewing rare good stingo.
1838		Warder & Dublin Wkly Mail 14 July 8/1: You remained at home behind the counter, meteing out ‘the stingo’ to the ‘Galway boys’.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Feb. 3/1: [He] passed a censure upon the world in general [...] much regretting that it required stingo to produce a sympathy that ought to emanate from poure charity.
1843		Boston Satirist (MA) 17 Mar. n.p.: [used to imply quality in any liquor] The old lady was sure to have her bottle of real champaign ready to accomodate accommodate them with the ‘genewine stingo’.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 227: He swallowed everything that was offered him, from a thimblefull of ‘daffy’ to the flagon of ‘stingo’.
1858		‘A. Pendragon’ Queen of the South 156: They is’nt such fools as not to know what stingo is.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 247/2: I was now smoking my pipe and quaffing a pint of real ‘Yorkshire stingo’.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 19 Oct. n.p.: I could not get my stingo in New York.
1872		‘Greeley’s the Boy’ in Farmer of Chappaqua Songster 8: We’ll have him keep drinkin’ his stingo.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 11: Stingo - Strong liquor; ‘Yorkshire stingo’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 20/1: For example, take the case of a highly respectable church elder, who runs a store and makes a pile by bottling off diluted vitriol into Hennessy’s three-star flasks, and selling the same as the real stingo.
1890		Kipling ‘The Story of the Gadbsys’ in Soldiers Three (1907) 163: An’ since ’twas very clear we drank only ginger-beer, / Faith, there must ha’been some stingo in the ginger.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 81: Stingo, strong liquor.
1900		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 1 Sept. 3/6: Stingo Lingo — [...] The language of the London East-end pubr.
1902		‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 3 Aug. 1/6: ‘An' yous never gets at er pub nowadays ther real old rippin’ stingo we uster make [...] afore ther cops got ser perticler’.
1902		Inter-Ocean (Chicago) 2 Feb. 42/2: The bear got hold of the bottle of stingo and liked its smell and taste.
1926		Market Harborough Adveriser 24 Dec. 1/2: [advert] For Christmas — Stingo [...] Real Old Ale at Pre-war Strength.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.
1948		Biggleswade Chron. 24 Dec. 5/1: [advert] Wells & Winch’s Houses Stingo (very strong Old English Ale).
1954		Beds. Times 10 Dec. 4/6: [advert] The Ideal Winter Drink! Wells and Winch’s Stingo.
1962		T.K. Martin Z Cars (1963) 132: Barlow tiptoed out and across to the Magga where he ordered some stingoes and a half bottle of whisky.
1972		Brandon Sun (Manitoba) 5 Apr. 28/2: Dedicated beer drinkers [...] in UK [...] like to stoke up with a stingo, a strong beer.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Go West Young Man’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] These aren’t your two halves of Stingo.

2. energy, ‘vim’.

1885		Western Dly Press 20 Aug. 3/7: It’s rare fun, by Jingo! I give ’em hot stingo, / That’s just what the public enjoy.
1898		F. Norris Moran of the Lady Letty 54: Oars out, men [...] Now, son, put a little o’ that Yale stingo in the stroke.
1931		Townsville Daily Bull. (Qld) 7 July 11/6: Ladel us out something with a bit of ginger, kick an’ stingo in it.