Etymologically
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fang

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fang,[2][3] inherited from Old English fang (“a seizing or taking; booty, plunder”),[3][4][5][6] formed from gefangen, the past participle of fōn (“to seize, take, capture”).[3][4][7] The verb continues Proto-Germanic *fanhaną (“to catch”),[1][8] whose other descendants include Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽 (fāhan), Old Norse fá, Old High German fāhan, German fangen and Dutch vangen.[8][3][5] The noun has cognates in Old Frisian fang, fang and Middle High German vanc.[5][4] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the late Old English noun instead from the Old Norse word, meaning capture or grasp.[9][10] Etymonline derives the Germanic verb from a nasalised form of Proto-Indo-European *pag- (“to fasten”),[3][6] the root also of Latin pāx (“peace”) and pacīscor (“to agree, make a treaty”).[3][11][2] The sense "tooth" is not found in Middle English;[3][2] Etymonline and Barnhart think it probably grew from fengtoð (“catching tooth”).[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Booty, plunder, what is taken: in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the entry for 1016, where the raiders "would take booty".[4][5] Barnhart dates the Middle English noun to before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.[2]

Semantic evolution

The old sense of booty survived well into the 18th century and lasted longer in Scots,[12][5][13] and the noun also meant a capture or a tight grip (before 1400 to 1616).[5] Ayto calls the verb fang, to take or capture, very common in Old and Middle English.[12] The sense of a trap or snare is recorded from the mid 16th century,[10][5] and in the same years the word was first used for a canine tooth or tusk (1555),[5][3] a change Ayto finds clear in its broad outline but obscure in its mechanism;[12] the Oxford Dictionary of English sees the same idea of something that catches and holds.[10] Johnson (1755) defined it as the long tusks of a boar or other animal.[14] The venom tooth of a snake is recorded only from 1800,[5][3][2] and a human tooth, colloquially, from 1841, in Dickens.[5] The verb fang, to strike with the fangs, followed in 1807, and in Scotland to fang a pump was to prime it (1819).[5][15] In Scottish and English dialect fang was still the grip or suction of a pump, and the verb meant to seize or clutch.[16]

Timeline

  • Old English – booty, plunder (now obsolete except in Scots).[5][4]
  • before 1400 – a capture, catch; a tight grip (obsolete by 1616).[5]
  • before 1600 – a noose or trap (obsolete).[5]
  • 1555 – a canine tooth, a tusk.[5][3]
  • 1609 – the mandibles of an insect (obsolete by 1712).[5]
  • 1800 – the venom tooth of a snake.[5][3]
  • 1807 – verb, to strike with the fangs.[5]
  • 1819 – verb, to prime a pump.[5]
  • 1841 – colloquially, a human tooth.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A long pointed tooth, especially a canine of a carnivorous animal: The wolf bared its fangs.[17][13][5]
  2. One of the hollow or grooved teeth through which a venomous snake injects its venom; also, one of the poison-bearing mouthparts of a spider.[17][13][5]
  3. The root of a tooth, or one of its prongs.[17][13]
  4. (British, informal, usually plural) A tooth: Go and brush your fangs.[17][5]
  5. (chiefly Scottish) Booty, plunder.[13][5][15]

Verb

  1. To strike or bite with fangs.[13][5][15]
  2. (Scotland) To prime a pump with water.[13][5][15]
  3. (dialect) To seize or lay hold of.[13][5][16]

Word family

  • fanged
  • fangless
  • fanglike
  • defang

Usage notes

In Australian slang a fang is a fast drive (1970) and to fang is to drive fast (1973), from the name of the Argentinian racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio.[5][18] Fang is also the name of a people of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and of their Bantu language, from French Fan, probably from Pangwe.[17][13][10]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com