shingle [ME] With the meaning ‘a rectangular wooden tile used on walls or roofs’, shingle probably goes back to Latin scandula ‘split piece of wood’. In the early 19th century the word developed the meaning ‘a piece of board’, and in the USA in particular ‘a small signboard’. To hang out your shingle, an American expression for ‘to begin to practise a profession’, refers to a doctor or lawyer hanging up a sign outside their office advertising their professional services. The shingle on a seashore [E16th] is a different word, whose origin is unknown, and the painful medical condition shingles [LME] is different again. Its origin is medieval Latin cingulus ‘belt, girdle’, a reference to the blisters that appear in a band around the body.