www.alphadictionary.com

I've never seen this word used except in the company of the prefix "new", although if there's a need to distinguish "new-fangled" from either its past tense or its antonym there must be "old-fangled" items that depreciated by a third once they've rolled past the tongue and accumulated a few miles of use.

So what was (is) it? Something that's flashy and glittery but only ornamentation without a real function? And if so, is there nothing more than simply a distinction without a difference between "new-fangled" and "bling"?

The minds of those with too much idle time on their hands want to know.

This should help clear things up.

Copying my comment I just added to the Doc's original post:
I've often heard the word used from a 'Luddite' position, indicating a lack of understanding about what to do with something or how to operate it. "I don't understand all the ruckus about all these newfangled electronic gadgets." No implication they will not last.i

Apparently I missed something,as the

This should help clear things up.

reply may have opened a door but didn't (for me, anyway) turn the lights on.

My specific question was

What is a "fangle"--new or old--and is there a distinction-without-a-difference between "new fangled" and "bling"--such as the flashy, glittery, $1,000-each wheels and hubcaps on "pimpmobiles"?

Maybe it's an age-thing.

Bling is a relatively recent term as a popular word for glittery stuff. I don't consider it a synonym for fangle as I've never heard af new-fangled bling.

My specific question was

What is a "fangle"--new or old--and is there a distinction-without-a-difference between "new fangled" and "bling"--such as the flashy, glittery, $1,000-each wheels and hubcaps on "pimpmobiles"?

Apologies are due from my side. I wrote a response and managed not to post it. Sorry.

The link I posted was to our Good Doctor's treatment of the word newfangled. In the Word History section he wrote:

It started out in Middle English as neufanglyd "fond of novelty", a past participle of neufangel. This word is a compound made up of neu "new" + fangel "take, catch", a distant cousin of German fangen "to catch". This verb goes back to an obsolete word, fang "to catch (a fish)" used as recently as 1877. The original sense seems to be "newly caught" or "newly seized".

Thus we see that "fangle" has never been a word, and therefore can have no relation to bangle or bling.

I hope this answers your question.

Aha! To paraphrase one of my betters:

It is dark until the light is turned on, and then we can see

Thanks.