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Etymology and origin of the English word lunge

Pronunciation

lunge1 long rope for training horses

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1607 E. Topsell, Historie of Foure-footed Beastes
Borrowed from
French longe
Ultimate origin
Latin longus

Etymology

The word for the training rope is borrowed from French longe (“halter, lunge”),[2][3][4] a variant of Old French loigne,[2][3] from Vulgar Latin *longea, from Latin longus (“long”).[2] Merriam-Webster and Klein take the French noun as the feminine of the adjective long, long, used as a noun,[5][6][7] and Hoad as a shortening of allonge, a piece that lengthens a strap.[8] The spelling longe is still in use beside lunge.[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thong or cord in general: 1607, in Topsell's Historie of Foure-footed Beastes, a sense recorded only then.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

By 1721 the word meant the long rope fastened to a horse's head and held by a trainer, who makes the horse circle around him;[2][8] from 1833 it also named the training itself and the circular ground used for it.[2] The verb, to train or exercise a horse with a lunge, is recorded from 1806,[2][3] and the lungeing-ring is the circular ground.[3]

Timeline

  • 1607 – a thong or cord (obsolete).[2]
  • 1721 – a long rope used in training horses.[2]
  • 1806 – verb, to train a horse with a lunge.[2]
  • 1833 – training with the lunge; the circular ground where it is done.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A long rein or rope by which a trainer holds a horse while it circles around him; also spelled longe.[5][3][2]
  2. A circular ground where horses are trained in this way.[2][3]

Verb

  1. To train or exercise a horse on a lunge: She lunged the young mare before riding her.[5][3][2]

lunge2 sudden thrust

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1735 Gentleman's Magazine
Ultimate origin
Latin longus
Etymology tree of lunge2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin longus
Aromanian lungu
Aromanian ningã
French long
French allonger
English lunge
Italian lungo
Romanian lung
Spanish luengo
The journey of lunge2
From the same root · lunge2
Latin ēlongō ← longus
Latin longaevus ← longus
Latin longē ← longus
Latin longiter ← longus
Latin longitūdō ← longus
Latin longurius ← longus
Latin oblongus ← longus
Latin perlongus ← longus
Latin praelongus ← longus
Latin prōlongō ← longus
Romanian lungi ← longus
Romanian lungime ← longus
French longtemps ← long
Romanian prelung ← lung

Etymology

The word for the thrust is from English a shortened form of the obsolete allonge, to thrust with a sword,[9][10][5][8][11] recorded from 1652 as a verb and 1675 as a noun;[2] Barnhart dates it to 1668.[9] The older word was taken from French allonger (“to lengthen, extend; to lunge”),[2][9][8] used in the phrase allonger un coup d'épée, to deliver a sword thrust;[8] the French verb is recorded in this sense only from 1690, but the noun allongeur, one who lunges, implies it by 1608.[2] It is from Old French alongier (“to lengthen, make long”), formed from a- (“to”) (from Latin ad-) and long, from longus (“long”).[10][9][12] Dictionary.com and Collins trace the French verb to Vulgar Latin *allongō for Late Latin ēlongō (“to lengthen”), the source of elongate.[7][11] Dictionary.com and Skeat explain the a- as lost because English heard allonge as “a longe”.[7][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To deliver a kick or thrust, with the verb used with an object: 1735, in the Gentleman's Magazine.[2][5] Etymonline also dates the verb (implied in lunged) and the noun "a thrust with a sword" to 1735;[12] the OED and Barnhart first record the noun in 1748, in Smollett's Roderick Random.[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains the fencing sense from the idea of lengthening, that is, extending one's sword to strike a blow.[14] Johnson (1755) entered only allonge, "a pass or thrust with a rapier, so called from the lengthening of the space taken up by the fencer".[15] In English the noun soon widened to any thrust with a weapon,[2] and in the 19th century to any sudden forward movement: the verb "to move with a lunge, rush" is recorded from 1821, in John Clare, and the noun "a sudden forward movement, plunge" from 1845.[2][12] Boxers used the verb for a straight blow from 1814.[2] From the 1880s lunge was also an exercise in Swedish drill, thrusting one leg forward with the knee bent while the other is stretched out behind.[2][3] In dialect it meant to thrust forward violently or strike heavily, from Scotland to Somerset.[16]

Timeline

  • 1735 – verb, to deliver a kick or a thrust.[2][12]
  • 1748 – noun, a thrust with a sword or other weapon.[2][9]
  • 1809 – in fencing, to make a thrust with a foil or rapier.[2]
  • 1814 – in boxing, to deliver a straight blow.[2]
  • 1821 – to move suddenly forward, to rush.[2][12]
  • 1841 – transitive, to drive or thrust with a lunge.[2]
  • 1845 – a sudden forward movement, a plunge.[2]
  • 1889 – an exercise in which one leg is thrust forward with the knee bent.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sudden thrust or pass with a sword or foil, especially in fencing, made by stepping forward with the front foot and straightening the back leg.[5][10][11]
  2. A sudden forceful movement forward; a plunge: The dog made a lunge for the ball.[5][10][11]
  3. An exercise in which one leg is thrust forward with the knee bent while the other stays stretched behind.[2][3][5]

Verb

  1. To make a sudden thrust, as in fencing.[5][10][11]
  2. To move forward suddenly and forcefully: He lunged at the closing door.[5][10][11]
  3. To thrust something, or cause it to move, with a lunge.[5][10][2]
  4. (archaic) To deliver a kick or blow suddenly, often with out.[5][2]

Word family

  • lunger

Usage notes

In North America lunge is also a name for the muskellunge, a large pike of the Great Lakes, and formerly for the lake trout; it is short for muskellunge and is recorded from 1851.[2][3][5]

References

  1. ^ 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 s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Lunge.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/lunge. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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