Etymologically
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hangar

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈhæŋ.ə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French hangar (“shed”),[2][3][4][5][6] whose further origin is uncertain.[2][3][7][8] The French word is probably from hanghart (14th century),[3][4] recorded in northern France in 1502.[9] One explanation takes it from Middle Dutch *ham-gaerd (“enclosure near a house”),[3][4][9] from Proto-Germanic *haimgardaz, a compound of the elements of home and yard;[3] the American Heritage Dictionary also gives it a Germanic origin,[10] and Dictionary.com derives it from Old Dutch *haimgard (“fence around a group of buildings”).[11] The other takes it from Medieval Latin angārium (“shed in which horses are shod”),[3][6][5][12][9] which Merriam-Webster traces perhaps to Late Latin angaria (“compulsory service; carriage, wagon”),[6] and Klein and Partridge link with hang: horses were hung up to be shod.[12][9] Weekley left both possibilities open and quoted Cotgrave (1611) for Middle French angar (“an open shed where farmers kept their ploughs out of the weather”).[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A covered space or shed, especially for carriages: 1852, in Thackeray's Henry Esmond.[2][4][3] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the word to the late 17th century in the sense "shelter", rare before the mid 19th.[7][14]

Semantic evolution

The sense "shed for aircraft" appears in English in 1902, following French use,[2][3][4] and later covered spacecraft too.[2] The first edition of the OED (1898) gave the word only a French pronunciation.[2] The verb, to put or keep in a hangar, is recorded from 1943.[6]

Timeline

  • 1852 – a covered shed, especially for carriages.[2][4]
  • 1902 – a shed for aircraft.[2][4][3]
  • 1943 – verb, to place in a hangar.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A large building or shed for housing and repairing aircraft: The jets were towed into the hangar for the night.[5][6][2]
  2. A shelter or shed in general.[6][2][7]

Verb

  1. To put or keep an aircraft in a hangar.[6]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ a b 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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press