peg

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pegge,^[2][3][4][5] probably borrowed from Middle Dutch pegge (“plug, peg, small wooden pin”),^[2][6][4][7] or a similar Low German word;^[3][8][9] compare Low German pigge (“peg”) and regional Dutch peg (“plug, peg”).^[2][9][7] The Middle Dutch word is of uncertain origin.^[2][4][3] It may be related to pegel (“little knob used as a mark”), Middle Low German pegel (“peg, pin, bolt”), German Pegel (“gauge rod, watermark”) and Dutch peil (“gauge, watermark, standard”).^[2][3][9][7] Merriam-Webster thinks it probably akin to Latin baculum (“staff”),^[6] and Etymonline suggests Proto-Indo-European *bak- (“staff used as support”), the root of bacillus.^[3] Weekley wondered whether it was ultimately related to French pique and pike,^[10] and Skeat compared Danish pig and Swedish pigg (“spike”).^[11] The verb comes from the noun,^[2][4][3] and the OED compares peggen (“to plug a hole with a peg”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short pin or bolt of wood used to fasten things together: 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum,^[2][4] which glosses pegge, or pyn of tymbre.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the late 16th century the word named particular kinds of peg: the tuning pin of a stringed instrument (1589),^[2][9] the marks set at intervals in a drinking vessel to show how much each drinker was to take (1617),^[2] the pins that fastened the sole of a shoe (1714) and later a cricket stump, a railway signal and a climber's piton.^[2] The figurative sense "step, degree", as in take someone down a peg, is recorded from 1589;^[4][3][9] Etymonline finds its literal starting point uncertain,^[3] Barnhart suggests the interval between pegs, as on a ladder,^[4] and Weekley the pegs used to tighten the strings of an instrument.^[10] The Anglo-Indian peg, a drink, especially of brandy and soda, is recorded from the early 19th century;^[9][12] Weekley derived it from the pegs in tankards,^[10] while Green's Dictionary of Slang also mentions the idea of a peg, or nail, in one's coffin.^[12] A square peg in a round hole, a misfit, dates from 1836,^[2][3] and peg leg, a simple wooden leg, from 1765.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as a piece of wood driven into a hole, "which does the office of an iron nail".^[13] The verb was used from 1543 for putting a peg into a pig's nose, from 1598 for fastening something with pegs,^[2][4] from 1770 for scoring at cribbage,^[2] from 1882 in commerce for fixing a price or rate,^[4][3] and since 1920, chiefly in North America, for classifying someone, as in to have someone pegged.^[2][3] In dialect a peg could also be a tooth.^[9]

Timeline

• 1440 – noun, a wooden pin or bolt.^[2][4]
• 1543 – verb, to put a peg into (a pig's nose).^[2][4][6]
• 1589 – a tuning peg of a stringed instrument; a step or degree.^[2][4]
• 1598 – to fasten with a peg or pegs.^[2][4]
• 1617 – a mark in a drinking vessel.^[2]
• 1765 – peg leg.^[3]
• 1770 – to score at cribbage.^[2]
• 1836 – a square peg in a round hole.^[2][3]
• 1882 – to fix a price or exchange rate.^[4][3]
• 1920 – to classify or identify (a person).^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small pin of wood, metal or plastic, often tapered, used to fasten parts together, plug a hole, or hang things on: She hung her coat on the peg by the door.^[14][6][2]
2. Any of the pins in the head of a stringed instrument that are turned to tune the strings.^[14][2]
3. (chiefly British) A clothes peg, for fastening washing to a line.^[14][6]
4. A step or degree, especially in take someone down a peg (or two), to make someone less arrogant.^[4][3][9]
5. A level at which a price or exchange rate is fixed.^[6]
6. (chiefly British, dated) A drink of spirits, especially brandy and soda.^[9][12]

Verb

1. To fasten or secure with a peg or pegs: They pegged the tent down before the storm.^[6][2]
2. To fix a price, wage or exchange rate at a set level: The currency was pegged to the dollar.^[4][6]
3. (informal, chiefly North American) To classify or identify someone as a certain type.^[2][3]
4. To mark a score with pegs, especially at cribbage.^[2]

Word family

• pegless
• peglike
• pegboard
• pegbox
• repeg
• unpeg
• peg out

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins