gong

Etymology

It is borrowed from Malay gong, also gung,^[2][3][4][5] or Javanese gong;^[6][7][8] Partridge thinks it may come from both.^[9] Hobson-Jobson cites Crawfurd for a Javanese origin and notes that the word is found in all the languages of the Malay Archipelago, often also as agong;^[10][11] it rejects the claim that it is Chinese, for which no Chinese word could be found.^[10] The name is usually taken to imitate the sound of the instrument,^{[2][5][12][13][7]} though Barnhart calls this only alleged.^[6] The same word gave French gong, German Gong and Spanish gongo.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A metal disc with an upturned rim that gives a resonant note when struck: about 1600, in an account by A. Battel printed in Purchas's Pilgrims.^[2][6][5] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1590,^[7] and Dictionary.com's 1800–1810 is much later than the other dictionaries.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Hobson-Jobson describes the gong as used in the Far East in place of a bell, and in Burmese and Javanese music as sets of tuned gongs.^[10] Anglo-Indians also gave the name to the metal plates on which the hours were struck.^[10] From 1864 it was used for a saucer-shaped bell struck by a mechanical hammer, as in alarms.^[2][14] Soldiers' slang made it a medal or decoration, recorded by the OED from 1925 and by Green's from 1921,^[2][15] and Green's thinks Indian Army veterans brought it home from the Anglo-Indian use.^[15] In police use it was the warning bell on a police car (1938 in the OED, 1922 in Green's),^[2][15] and since 1934 the verb meant to signal a driver to stop with such a bell.^[2][3] The verb, to sound a gong, is dated by Etymonline to 1853 and by the OED to 1903, in H. G. Wells.^[5][2]

Timeline

• c. 1590 – first date in Merriam-Webster.^[7]
• c. 1600 – a resonant metal disc struck as an instrument or signal.^[2][6]
• 1853 – verb, to sound a gong, in Etymonline.^[5]
• 1864 – a saucer-shaped bell struck mechanically.^[2]
• 1903 – verb, to sound a gong or summon with one, in the OED.^[2]
• 1915 – US drug slang, an opium pipe.^[15]
• 1921 – slang, a medal.^[15]
• 1934 – of police, to signal a driver to stop.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A percussion instrument made of a metal disc, usually with a turned rim, that gives a loud resonant sound when struck with a padded stick; a tam-tam: A gong sounded for dinner.^[14][7][16]
2. A saucer-shaped bell struck by a mechanical hammer, as in an alarm.^{[14][7][16][2]}
3. A coiled wire rod that sounds the strokes in a clock.^[17][7]
4. (British, slang) A medal or other award.^[16][2][15]

Verb

1. To sound a gong, or to make a sound like one.^{[14][7][16][2]}
2. (British) Of the police, to signal a driver to stop by sounding a bell.^[2][3]

Word family

• gonglike

Related words

• tam-tam
• tom-tom

Usage notes

An older word gong, a privy or its contents, is Old English gong, a variant of gang;^[2][1] Chaucer used it in the Parson's Tale, and it survived in compounds such as gong farmer.^[15][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ a b c d Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
15. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster