rung

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rung, also rong,^[2][3] inherited from Old English hrung (“rod, staff, crossbar, pole”),^{[4][5][6][7][8]} from Proto-Germanic *hrungō.^[5][9] It is cognate with West Frisian ronge (“support in a cart”), Middle Dutch ronge, Dutch rong, Middle Low German runge (“rod, stanchion”), Old High German runga (“rod, support in a cart”), German Runge and Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌿𐌲𐌲𐌰 (hrugga, “staff”), which renders Ancient Greek ῥάβδος (rhábdos, “rod”) in the Gothic Bible.^[4][9][10] The further origin is uncertain:^[4][2] Etymonline finds no connections outside Germanic,^[5] while Kroonen takes it as a zero-grade formation related to Proto-Germanic *hringa-, the source of ring, and treats a likeness to Polish krężel (“distaff”) as possibly deceptive.^[9] Klein and Skeat thought the original sense was "rounded stick", which would fit a link with ring,^[2][11] and Partridge suggested a nasalized cognate of Latin crux (“cross”).^[12] The Middle English word was borrowed into British medieval Latin as Medieval Latin runga, also ronga, from the early 13th century.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stout rounded stick or pole, used as a crossbar or rail in a cart, or as a spoke: in Old English, in one of the riddles of the Exeter Book, where men stow their horses "under the rung" of a wagon.^[4][7] The word is also found early in place names, such as Runcgetun in Norfolk (mid-11th century, now Runcton) and Runtune in the North Riding of Yorkshire (1086, now Rounton), perhaps for poles or a causeway of logs over marshy ground.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

The general Old English sense of a rod or crossbar was narrowed in English to the step of a ladder, recorded from about 1300,^[4][5][14] while the cognates in the other Germanic languages kept the wider meaning.^[5] The older use survived in the bars of chairs and carts and in the spokes of wheels: from about 1287 a rung was also one of the bars of a mill wheel that engaged with the cogs of another, often in the phrase cogs and rungs.^[4] Figurative use for a step or stage in an upward progression appears in Langland's Piers Plowman (about 1400), and is now used especially of grades in a social or career structure.^[4][3] In Scotland, Ireland and northern England rung meant a cudgel or stout walking stick, from 1491;^[4][15][16] the English Dialect Dictionary records it from Scotland to Somerset.^[15] In shipbuilding a rung was a floor timber, from before 1625 to 1875.^[4] In American English the plural rungs was once considered a corruption of rounds, which John Pickering (1816) said educated people used instead.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1000 – Old English hrung, a rod, crossbar or rail of a cart.^[4][14]
• mid-11th century – in the place name Runcgetun (now Runcton, Norfolk).^[4]
• c. 1287 – a bar of a mill wheel or drum that engages with cogs.^[4]
• c. 1300 – a step of a ladder.^[4][14]
• c. 1400 – figurative, a step or stage in a rising progression, in Piers Plowman.^[4]
• 1491 – a cudgel or stout staff, in Scotland and northern England.^[4]
• before 1625 – in shipbuilding, a floor timber (obsolete by 1875).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. One of the bars or rods that form the steps of a ladder: She stood on the bottom rung to steady it.^[17][3][4]
2. A level or grade in a hierarchy or rising scale: the lowest rung of the civil service.^[3][4]
3. A crosspiece between the legs of a chair or a similar piece of furniture.^[17][3][4]
4. A spoke of a wheel, especially one of the handles projecting from the rim of a ship's steering wheel.^[17][3][4]
5. (dialect) A cudgel or stout staff.^{[17][3][4][15]}

Word family

• rungless

Related words

• ring
• ladder
• spoke

Usage notes

The same spelling serves as the past participle of ring, to sound a bell: the OED treats rung as a separate adjective "made to resound" (from 1595), and another past participle of ring, to put a ring on, gave rung "having a ring in the nose" (from before 1637) and, chiefly in Australia, "ringbarked" (from 1844).^[4][3][17] In Australian slang someone with a few rungs missing off their ladder is eccentric or mad.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Smith, A. H. (1956), English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols. (English Place-Name Society 25–26), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
14. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ a b c 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)
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com