The story
Before buzzers and beeps, bells did the reminding: they summoned servants and sounded alarms. A popular story links the phrase to Pavlov’s dogs, but nothing ties them together. It turns up in a 1933 American novel, Lee Thayer’s Counterfeit: “Why does that name ring a bell with you?” Some think the idea of a faint “inkling” suggested a faint tinkling in the mind.