hinge

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English henge, also heng and heeng,^[2][3][4][5] and is not found in Old English.^[6][7] The OED and the MED trace it to an unrecorded Old English *henge (“a hanging, suspension”),^[4][2] a derivative of the base of the verb hang,^[4][5][8][9] so that a hinge is the thing on which a door hangs;^[6][10] compare hengeclif (“overhanging cliff”).^[2] Ayto calls the circumstances of its formation obscure, and Hoad calls its origin obscure.^[10][8] It is related to Middle Dutch henghe (“hook, handle”) and Middle Low German henge (“hinge”),^[6][9][3][4] and the American Heritage Dictionary and Etymonline trace the root to Proto-Indo-European *konk- (“to hang”).^[11][6] The change of the vowel from e to i is a regular one before the consonants “ng”,^[9] and the pronunciation ending in the sound of “-dge” is not clearly recorded before 1590;^[4][9] Ayto notes that before the 16th century the word rhymed with “sing”, not “singe”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi, it is used of the axis of the earth, the poles about which the earth turns.^[4] The literal sense, the joint on which a door or gate moves, is recorded in 1356 as heyngge,^[9] and in the OED from about 1380, in Sir Ferumbras.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

From doors and gates the word spread to the joint of a lid or valve (1562), the natural joint of a bivalve shell (1704) and, in stamp collecting, the small gummed strip used to mount a stamp (1883).^[4][6] The figurative sense, that on which something turns or depends, appears in Shakespeare's Othello (before 1616),^[4] and by 1638 it meant the central point of an argument and by 1775 a turning point or crisis;^[4] Etymonline dates the figurative use to about 1600.^[6] Weekley compares these figurative senses with those of cardinal.^[7] The verb meant first to bend like a hinge, in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens ("hinge thy knee"),^[5][4][9] then to hang and turn on something (1719) and to attach with hinges (1758–65, in Goldsmith).^[4][9] In dialect a hinge was also the heart, liver and lungs of an animal used as food, recorded from 1469.^[4] The English Dialect Dictionary records hinge-tree in Worcestershire for the gatepost that carries the hinges, the phrase to be off the hinges, to be out of health, and in Lancashire to have no hinge to one's back, to be independent and not servile.^[12] In American slang of the 1940s a hinge was a look, from the turning of one's head.^[13]

Timeline

• before 1300 – the axis of the earth.^[4]
• 1356 – heyngge, the joint on which a door moves.^[9]
• c. 1380 – henge, a hinge of a door or gate.^[4][9]
• 1469 – the viscera of an animal used as food (dialect).^[4]
• 1562 – the joint of a lid or valve.^[4]
• before 1616 – figurative, that on which something turns or depends.^[4]
• 1607 – verb, to bend like a hinge.^[9] The OED dates it before 1616.^[4]
• 1638 – the central point of an argument.^[4]
• 1704 – the joint of a bivalve shell.^[4]
• 1719 – verb, to hang and turn on; to depend.^[4][9][3]
• 1775 – a turning point, crisis.^[4]
• 1883 – a stamp hinge.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A movable joint on which a door, gate, lid or other part swings, usually two metal leaves joined by a pin.^[14][3][4]
2. (anatomy) A joint, such as the knee, that moves in only one plane.^[14][3]
3. The joint between the two halves of a bivalve shell.^[14][3][4]
4. A small folded strip of gummed paper used to mount a postage stamp in an album.^[3][4]
5. Something on which events or an argument turn or depend; a pivot or turning point.^[14][4]

Verb

1. To attach with or fit with hinges.^[3][4]
2. hinge on or upon: to depend on: Everything hinged on the result of the vote.^[3][14][4]

Word family

• hingeless
• hingelike
• rehinge
• unhinge
• butt hinge
• hinge joint

Related words

• hang
• cardinal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins