▪ I. tang, n.1
(tæŋ)
Forms: α. 4–7 tange, 7–8 tangue, 8–9 dial. taing, 5– tang. β. 5–6 tong(g)e.
[Known in literature from 14th c., but prob. in much earlier use in northern Eng.: a. ON. tange point, spit of land, tang of a knife, etc., Norw., Da. tange, Sw. tång(e, Færoese tangi.]
I. 1. A projecting pointed part or instrument. a. The tongue of a serpent, formerly thought to be the stinging organ; the sting of an insect. (Now dial.)
| a 1350 St. Matthew 58 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 132 Men þat þai [serpents] bifore had biten And with þaire tanges ful sare smetyn. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 496/2 Tongge, of a bee, aculeus. c 1440 Staunton St. Patrick's Purg. (1900) 61 Þei maden to me an hudious noyse..with blaryng owt of here brennyng tanges. 1483 Cath. Angl. 378/1 A Tange of A nedyr, aculeus, acus, pugio. 1530 Palsgr. 281/2 Tonge of a bee, esguillon. 1787 Grose Provinc. Gloss., Tang,..a sting. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Tang, a sting or point. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Tang,..the tongue of a snake, with which people believe it has the power of stinging... The sting of an insect. |
b. fig. A ‘sting’, a pang.
| 1724 Ramsay Health 156 The flagg'd embrace, and mercenary squeeze, The tangs of guilt, and terrors of disease. 1868 Lanier Jacquerie i. 73 Oh, sharper tangs pierced through this perfumed May. |
c. dial. A sharp point or spike; the pin of a buckle; one of the prongs or tines of a fork; a prong or tine of a stag's horn.
The sense ‘leg of a pair of tongs’ in R. Holme may have been derived from the tang of a fork.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 132/2 [Of a horn] The lower Tang [is] the Brow-Antlier. [Ibid. iii. xiv. (Roxb.) 7/1 He beare[th] Sable, a paire of Tonges closed in ye tanges Argent.] 1781 J. Hutton Tour to Caves (ed. 2) Gloss., Tang, a pike. 1828 Craven Gloss., Tang, Teng,..the prong of a fork. ‘A fork wi three tangs’. 1843 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. VI. 147/1 On the lower edge [of the excavator or shovel] are four tangs or points, which serve to penetrate and loosen the soil. 1868 Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., Tang, the tongue of a buckle, the prong of a fork. 1877 E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss., Tang, the tongue of a buckle. |
d. † The barb of a hook (obs.); the tongue of a Jew's-harp (also fig.).
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 80/1 The tongue of the hooke is that little tang or slip on the inside of it, which..hinders the hooke from comeing out. Some call it the barbe. 1887 Suppl. to Jamieson, Tang o' the trump,..the tongue of the Scottish trump or Jew's harp;..the chief or most important person in a company. |
e. (See quot.) dial. (So in Old Norse.)
| 1822 Hibbert Shetl. Isles 518 A narrow stripe of land stretches out that is named the Taing of Torness. The word Taing expresses the character of the low projecting cape. [Cf. p. 479 Ting of Torness.] |
2. a. An extension of a metal tool or instrument, as a chisel, file, knife, axe, coulter, pike, scythe, sword, etc., by which it is secured to its handle or stock. Also in certain firearms.
Originally a spike or rod to thrust into the stock; hence extended to a piece of any shape or form having the same function: see quots. Now the chief literal sense.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 496/2 Tongge of a knyfe, pirasmus. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 735/19, 20 Hoc tenaculum, Hic spirasmus, a tang. 1483 Cath. Angl. 378/1 A Tange of A knyfe, parasinus. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 67 The Stayl must be plated with Iron,..through which, as also the Wood, the tange of the Coulter must come. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 321/2 The Cheeks, or Plates, or Tangs [of a hammer are] the Irons which hold the Head on. Ibid. xxii. (Roxb.) 284/1 The handle is neere a yard long, with an Hoop at the end for the Tang of the Trowell to be fastned in. 1805 C. James Milit. Dict. (ed. 2), Tang, the upper part of the plug, or breech pin. 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 281 The tang, or part by which it [a penknife blade] is to be held during grinding, and ultimately to be fixed in the haft. 1837 Whittock Bk. Trades (1842) 226 In forming the tangs of most files, it is necessary to make the shoulders perfectly square and sharp. 1864 R. F. Burton Dahome 44 African battle-axes with..the tangs set in the hafts. 1869 V. D. Majendie Milit. Breech-Loading Rifles 62 The locking arrangements consists of the following parts:—Steel bolt..Recess in breech tang for bolt. 1884 W. H. Rideing in Harper's Mag. June 78/2 The blade..is welded, in the case of a dinner-knife, to a piece of iron, which forms the ‘tang’ or the part that is inserted in the handle. 1904 Budge Guide 3rd & 4th Egypt. Rooms Brit. Mus. 7 Two bronze ribbed spear-heads, with tangs. 1909 Text Bk. Small Arms i. iv. 35 The rear end of the body is in the form of a tang with sides. 1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Milit. Terms 605 Tang, the projecting portion of the breech of a musket, by which the barrel is secured to the stock. 1929 War Office Textbk. Small Arms i. 12 On the underside of the cocking-piece is a projection..which travels in a groove, cut for it in the tang of the body. 1965 H. L. Blackmore Guns & Rifles of World 100 Butt tang engraved with Royal arms of France. 1976 Shooting Mag. Dec. 61/1 (Advt.), Mode 801 Luxus O/U shotgun..10 mm wide ventilated barrel rib, sling swivels, top tang safety, double trigger. |
b. A root or fang of a tooth; a root or branch of a tree. Now chiefly dial.
| 1715 Molyneux in Phil. Trans. XXIX. 372 Strong Tangs or Roots,..by which the Tooth receives its sense and Nourishment. 1886 Holland Chester Gloss., Tangs, (2) the principal roots or branches of a tree. |
3. = surgeon-fish s.v. surgeon n. 3 b.
| 1734 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVIII. 317 Turdus rhomboïdalis. The Tang. This Fish hath on each side the Tail a sharp pointed Bone, which it can erect in its own Defence. 1902 Webster Suppl., Tang,..any West Indian species of surgeon fish, as the common tang (Teuthis hepatus), the blue tang (T. cæruleus), and the ocean tang (T. Bahianus). 1925 D. S. Jordan Fishes (rev. ed.) xxxviii. 618 In the next family, Acanthuridæ, the surgeon-fishes or tangs, the scales remain small. 1965 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 3 June (1970) 281 These were lots of little bright yellow fish, young blue tang, they called them—as they grow up they change color. 1980 R. E. Thresher Reef Fish xx. 147 The surgeonfish, or tangs, are high-bodied, laterally compressed fish. |
4. a. Stereotyping. The piece of superfluous metal formed at the end of the plate; the pour-piece. b. Stereotyping. That part of the papier-maché flong or mould which overlaps the tail end of the matrix so as to prevent the metal from flowing under the end of the mould in the casting-box; the tail-piece. c. Type-founding. The projection at the bottom of a piece of type which is formed by superfluous metal cooling in the opening of the mould.
| a. 1880 F. J. F. Wilson Stereo- & Electrotyping 43 When the casting is sufficiently cool the superfluous metal at the head, called the ‘tang’, or ‘pour-piece’, may be removed by the circular saw or sharp-pointed hook. Ibid. 65 The ‘pour-piece’, or tang, is removed from the top end of the plate, and the bevel formed at the same time. |
| b. 1891 in Cent. Dict. 1910 H. Hart Let. to Editor, Occasionally the tang is lengthened, for use in a large casting-box, by pasting on to it a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard. |
| c. 1908 Proc. Institution Mechanical Engineers Dec. 1034 The gate through which the metal passes into the mould becomes also filled with type-metal and forms a projecting tang which must be broken from the type. 1921 W. H. Slater What Compositor should Know i. 23 Finishing means breaking off the ‘tang’ or ‘jet’ left at the bottom of each letter when this is not done on the machine. This tang occurs on all types cast by hand and all large sizes cast by machine. 1951 S. Jennett Making of Bks. ii. 32 When type is cast a fragment of metal, the tang, is left adhering at the base from the orifice in the mould through which the molten metal is injected. This tang is broken off and the resulting roughness of the fracture ground down. |
II. 5. a. A penetrating taste or flavour; usually (but not always) an after-taste, or a disagreeable or alien taste from contact with something else.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 496/2 Tongge, or sharpnesse of lycure yn tastynge, acumen. 1582 Breton Floorish upon Fancie (Grosart) 41/2 At first, me thought the tast was reasonable good: But..it left (alas) a bitter tang behinde. 1598 Florio, Piccante, a tartenes vpon the toong, a tang left vpon the toong. 1624 A. Wotton Runne from Rome 3 (As new vessels doe) keeping a tang of the first liquor wherewith I was seasoned. 1660 Fuller Mixt Contempl. (1841) 225 The best oil is said to have no taste, that is, no tang. 1736 Bailey Househ. Dict. 100 Brandy either French or English, that has no burnt tang or other ill taste. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) ix. xv, A strong tang of tallow or onion in your bread and butter. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Tang, a strong flavour; generally, but not always, an unpleasant one. 1883 E. C. Rollins New Eng. Bygones 180 Apples..picked freshly fallen from the earth had a keen spicy tang. |
| fig. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 15 The sweetest sinnes would carry a bitter tang, if we would but remember what sweete comfort of the creatures we haue forfeited for them. |
b. A pungent odour, a penetrating scent.
| 1858 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. I. xxx. 117 All places smell of hangman, it is everywhere the same tang; we might as well be hooped up with the body of a deceased felon on a gibbet of the olden style. 1883 Stevenson Silverado Sq. 163 Like the smell of a washing-house, but with a shrewd tang of the sea salt. 1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy xxxvii. 262 The tang of the cottage peat reek hangs like the peculiar incense of home. 1903 Sat. Rev. 14 Nov. 607 The air has a tang of its own, recognisable even in the closest lanes. |
c. ? A pungent or stinging effect; ‘something that leaves a sting or pain behind it’ (J.).
But the meaning here is disputed: cf. tang n.2 Shaksepeare may in this use have associated the two words.
| 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 52 But none of vs car'd for Kate. For she had a tongue with a tang, Would cry to a Sailor, goe hang! |
6. fig. a. A slight ‘smack’ of some quality, opinion, habit, form of speech, etc.; a ‘suspicion’, a suggestion; a trace, a touch of something.
| 1593 Harvey New Letter Wks. (Grosart) I. 285, I cannot but..conceiue as it were a tang of pleasure in mine owne displeasure. a 1625 Fletcher Hum. Lieut. i. i, Before I thought ye To have a little breeding—some little tang of Gentry. 1645 E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (1662) 137 The teachers have a strong tange of Pelagius. 1651 Life Father Sarpi (1676) 37 He had always kept a tang of the Neapolitan Dialect. 1657 Austen Fruit Trees ii. 153 Although the graft changes the sap of the wild stock into its owne nature, yet..a tang of the wild nature remains. 1751 Gray Wks. (1825) II. 162 The language has a tang of Shakespear that suits an old fashioned fable very well. 1854 H. Rogers Ess. II. i. 74 A still more serious fault in Locke is what we may venture to call a tang, if not of materialism, of something that displays a latent tendency towards it. |
b. Distinctive or characteristic flavour or quality.
| 1868 Alex. Smith Last Leaves 242 You cannot touch the tang of any literary coterie. 1900 H. Harland Cardinal's Snuff-box xv. 122 His speaking-voice..was sweet, but with a kind of trenchant edge upon it, a genial asperity, that gave it character, tang. 1903 Daily Chron. 8 Oct., Such a phrase as ‘Food-taxers’ has not the requisite tang. |
▪ II. tang, n.2
(tæŋ)
A word sometimes app. purely echoic, denoting the strong ringing note produced when a large bell or any sonorous body is suddenly struck with force, or a tense string is sharply plucked; but often denoting a sound of a particular tone, esp. (? under the influence of tang n.1) one of an unpleasant kind; a twang.
(Some place here Shakespeare's ‘tongue with a tang’ (see tang n.1 5 c), which has prob. influenced some of the later uses here quoted.)
| 1669 Holder Elem. Speech 78 There is a pretty affectation in the Allemain, which gives their Speech a different Tang from ours. 1686 Bunyan Country Rhymes xxix. 37 Nor is there anything gives such a tang When by these Ropes these Ringers ring them well. 1866 Lowell Study Wind. 120 But he had hoped for a certain tang in the down-come of the bell. 1871 P. H. Waddell Ps. in Scotch Pref. 2 Mony a tang o' his [David's] harp had its ain sugh eftirhen' in Gethsemane. 1880 [see tankard 3]. 1883 Century Mag. XXVI. 888 A sort of fever which lent a petulant tang to her speech. 1892 Star 9 Aug. 1/7 The organist has..a hard task in eradicating the awful Cambridgeshire tang from the voices of his raw material. 1897 R. Broughton Dear Faustina xiv, Faustina is still fondly smiling, but in her tone there is the slight tang of displeasure. 1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy iii. 20 A..voice..with the snell Scottish scolding ‘tang’ in it, which is ever more humorous than alarming to those whom it addresses. |
b. quasi-adv. As an imitation of the sound of a vibrating string.
| 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr., Theatre 25 Tang goes the harpsichord, too-too the flute. |
▪ III. tang, n.3 dial.
(tæŋ)
[Of Norse origin; = Norw., Da., Færoese tang, Sw. tång seaweed, Icel. þáng fucus. The Norns of Orkney and Shetland had also, like Norwegian, tang.]
A collective name for large coarse seaweeds, esp. species of Fucus; tangle, sea-wrack; also called sea-tang.
black tang, the bladder-wrack, Fucus vesiculosus. prickly tang, F. aculeatus. yellow tang, F. nodosus.
| 1547 Salesbury Welsh Dict., Dylysc, Tang. 1655 Bp. J. Richardson Observ. O.T. 11 The likeliest reason is from the Hebrew appellation, calling it the sea of weeds, or sedge, mare algosum, of flag, or rush, or tange. a 1733 Shetland Acts 33 in Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. (1892) XXVI. 201 That none take bait nor cast tang in another man's ebb. 1769 Pennant Zool. III. 169 Lying under the stones among the tang on the rocky coasts of Anglesea. 1796 Statist. Acc. Scotl. XVII. 233* The sea-oak (Fucus vesiculosus, Lin.), which we denominate black tang. 1809 A. Edmondston View Zetland Isl. II. viii. 6 Before 1808, the yellow tang and the black tang were the only species used in the manufacture of kelp. 1810 Edin. Rev. XVII. 146 The prickly tang..often grows intermixed with the bladder-wrack. 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxxiv, Wet-footed and happy, dragging a yard or so of sea-tang behind her. |
b. Comb., as tang-covered adj.; tang-fish, the seal; tang-sparrow, the rock pipit (Anthus obscurus); tang-whaup, the whimbrel (Numenius phæopus).
| 1888 Jessie M. E. Saxby Lads of Lunda 122 The *tang-covered crown of the Skerry. |
| 1809 A. Edmondston Zetland II. 292 Seals are seen..[on] the coast of Zetland, and are vulgarly known by the name of *tang-fish. 1822 Hibbert Shetl. Isl. 586 The smaller seals, or Tang-fish, so named from being supposed to live among the Tang. |
| 1880 Jamieson, *Tang-sparrow. 1885 Swainson Provinc. Names Birds 46 Rock pipit..called from being exclusively confined to the sea shore..also..Tang sparrow (Shetland Isles). |
| 1808–18 Jamieson, *Tang-whaup, the whimbrel, Orkn. 1833 Montagu's Ornith. Dict. 534 Whimbrel... Provincial. Curlew knot... Tang-whaup. |
▪ IV. tang, n.4
(tæŋ)
Also tangue.
[f. native name.]
= tanrec.
| 1891 in Cent. Dict. |
▪ V. tang, v.1
(tæŋ)
Also 5 taang, 7–9 dial. teng.
[f. tang n.1]
1. trans. † To pierce; to prick (obs.); to sting as a serpent or an insect. Also absol. (Now dial.)
| a 1400–50 Alexander 4798 At oþir time of oure tulkis was tangid to dede And slayn with þa serpents a sowme out of noimbre. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxi. 141 Þai had within þam nedders, þat taanged þe husbands. c 1440 Alph. Tales 473 A serpent..tanged hym hugelie. 1684 Meriton Praise Ale 149 Hee [an ox]'s teng'd, hee'l dee; Let's stick him. 1788 W. Marshall Yorksh. II. Gloss., Teng, to sting, as the bee or the adder. 1888 Sheffield Gloss. s.v., That bee has tanged me. |
† b. fig. To pierce with grief or compunction.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 3637 Þan was he tangid with tene & turbled vnfaire. |
2. To furnish with a tang, spike, flange, etc.
| 1566 in Invent. R. Wardr. (1815) 169 Item sex pair of brasin calmes tangit with irne serving for battertis, moyanis, falconis. 1608 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iii. Schisme 122 But I will have your carrion shoulders goar'd With scourges tang'd with rowels [orig. garnez de cloux]. 1839 Bywater Sheffield Dial. 33 He mood'st blade... Then he tangs it. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 298/1 The end of the tube is bent and hammered over..and is afterwards ‘dubbed’ or ‘tanged’. |
† b. fig. To give point or effective force to. Obs.
| a 1518 Skelton Magnyf. 2234 Tushe! these maters that ye moue are but soppys in ale; Your trymynge and tramynge by me must be tangyd. |
3. To affect with a tang or (unpleasant) taste.
| 1686 F. Spence tr. Varillas' Ho. Medicis 330 They tang'd the good and added to the bad. 1742 Lond. & Country Brew. i. (ed. 4) 36 The Liquor suffers, and will be tanged with a noxious Taste. |
▪ VI. tang, v.2
(tæŋ)
[Mainly echoic, like tang n.2 (cf. ting v., tong v.); but in some instances affected by tang n.1]
1. trans. To strike (a bell or the like) so as to cause it to emit a sharp loud ringing note.
| 1556 Olde Antichrist 10 Is it ynough for him to tang the watchebell? 1841 C. H. Hartshorne Salop. Antiq. Gloss. 590 Tang, to make a harsh discordant noise by striking against a piece of metal: chiefly used in reference to the swarming of bees. Ex. ‘Tang the fryingpan’. 1842 Akerman Wilts. Gloss. s.v., ‘To tang the bell’ is to pull it. |
2. To utter with a tang or ringing tone.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. v. 163 Let thy tongue tang arguments of state; put thy selfe into the tricke of singularitie. 1863 Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. ii. 54 Touchstone..can tang out a sarcasm with any professor of cynicism. |
b. To impart a tang or twang to. nonce-use.
| a 1849 H. Coleridge Young & Contemp. Poems (1851) II. 328 So long shall Gray, and all he said and sung, Tang the shrill accents of the school-girl's tongue. |
3. intr. To emit a sharp and loud ringing or clanging sound; to ring, clang.
| [1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 78 Let thy tongue langer [1767 Capell tang] with arguments of state.] 1686 Bunyan Country Rhymes xxix. 36 When ringers handle them with Art and Skill, They then the Ears of the observers fill, With such brave Notes they ting and tang so well As to out strip all with their ding, dong, Bell. 1842 Akerman Wilts. Gloss., Tang, to make a noise with a key and shovel at the time of swarming of a hive. a 1845 Hood Tale of Trumpet xxxvi, The smallest urchin whose tongue could tang, Shock'd the Dame with a volley of slang. |
4. trans. dial. To affect (swarming bees) with a clanging noise, so as to make them settle: = ting v.
| 1881 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk. s.v., Mak' 'aste an' fatch the warmin'-pon an' the kay o' the 'ouse to tang the bees. |
5. intr. To move on with a tang.
| 1906 Daily Chron. 7 June 4/7 The car ‘tanged’ on. |