Etymologically
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rung

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɹʌŋ/, /ˈɹʊŋ/[1]
  • US: /ˈɹɜŋ/[1]

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

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