Etymologically
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gong

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɡɒŋ/[1]
  • US: /ɡɔŋ/[1]

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
  • 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