strong

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /strɒŋ/, US /strɑːŋ/, /strɔːŋ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English strong, inherited from Old English strang (also strong),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *strangaz.^[3][2][5] Its cognates include Old Saxon strang (“strong, bold, severe”), Old Norse strangr (“strong, severe”), Dutch streng (“strict”) and German streng (“strict, rigorous”).^[2][3][4] Etymonline suggests a possible origin in Proto-Indo-European *strenk- (“tight, narrow”),^[3] and Klein and Merriam-Webster connect it with Latin stringere (“to draw tight, bind”).^[6][7] It is related to string, strength and stringent.^[6][4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of living beings and their bodies, physically powerful: Old English strang, about 725 in Beowulf,^[2] or about 888.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old English strang also meant “firm, bold, resolute”, of medicines and poisons “powerful in effect”, of winds “violent”, and of wine “high in alcohol”.^[3] The comparative and superlative were formerly strenger and strengest.^[3] By the late 12th century the word was used of feelings, and of objects such as castles, “sturdy, firmly built”.^[3] Physically robust is from before 1225.^[9] Of smells it is from about 1200,^[3] of mental impressions and of emphatic language from the 1690s.^[3] With a number, “to the extent of” (a thousand strong), it is from the 1580s,^[3] and “having a large number” from the 1610s.^[3] The grammatical sense, of verbs that change their vowel, is from 1841, translating Jakob Grimm's German stark.^[3] The adverb strong, “with force”, is from about 900,^[9] and come it strong from 1812.^[9][3]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English strang (Beowulf).^[2]
• c. 900 – adverb.^[9]
• late 12th century – of feelings; of buildings.^[3]
• c. 1200 – of smells.^[3]
• 1580s – a thousand strong.^[3]
• 1690s – of language.^[3]
• 1812 – come it strong.^[9]
• 1841 – in grammar.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Physically powerful; able to exert great force.
2. Healthy and robust.
3. Economically sound: a strong currency.
4. Having force of character, will or intelligence.
5. Able to resist strain; solid, durable.
6. Intense or concentrated: strong coffee, a strong smell.
7. Forceful, emphatic: strong language.
8. Numbering a given amount: an army 10,000 strong.
9. (grammar) Of a verb, forming its past tense by a change of vowel, as sing, sang.

Adverb

1. In a strong, vigorous manner: going strong.

Word family

• strongish
• strongly
• strongness
• headstrong
• overstrong
• strongbox
• stronghold
• strongman

Related words

• strength
• string
• stringent

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares strong with stout, sturdy, tough, stalwart and tenacious, of which strong is the most general.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin