Etymologically
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peg

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈpɛɡ/[1]
  • US: /ˈpeɪ̯ɡ/[1]

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