thong

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thong, also thwong and thwang,^[2][3] inherited from Old English þwang, also þwong,^[4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *þwangiz.^[8][9] Its cognates include Old Norse þvengr (“thong, latchet”),^[8][10][7] Old High German dwang (“rein, bridle”),^[11][6] Middle Low German dwank (“constraint”)^[6][12] and Old Frisian thwang,^[12] and it is related to German Zwang (“compulsion”).^[13][14] The OED derives it from an ablaut stem meaning "to restrain", the stem of zwingen (“to force”), and Orel derives the noun from the strong verb Proto-Germanic *þwinganą;^[4][8] twinge, which first meant to pinch, belongs to the same family.^[15][10][4] Watkins, as cited by Etymonline, and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *twengh- (“to press in on, restrain”).^[7][11] Ayto explains a thong as, by origin, something that binds.^[14] The w began to be lost in the 13th century,^[14][6] and the dialect word whang is a variant of it.^[4][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A narrow strip of leather or hide, used as a lace, cord or strap: in Old English, from about 950,^[11][4] first in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[4] Bosworth–Toller also records it for a strip of skin and for a shoelace,^[5] and Word Origins says that in Anglo-Saxon times a thong was a shoelace.^[15]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word was used especially for a strap with a particular purpose, such as a cord, a whip or a band for fastening,^[7] and in the Lindisfarne Gospels also for a phylactery.^[4] In Middle English it appears in proverbs, and could also mean a strip cut from human skin;^[2] the saying to cut large thongs of another man's leather, to be lavish with what belongs to someone else, is recorded from about 1380.^[4][7] From 1592 a thong was also a strip used for flogging, or the lash of a whip,^[4] and Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a strap or string of leather.^[16] From 1665 the word was extended to similar strips of other material, such as a pliant plant stem or a root cutting of horseradish.^[4][3] In the 20th century Australian and American English took it for a sandal held on by a strap between the toes, the flip-flop;^[4][15][17] from the 1970s it also named a skimpy garment of narrow strips that leaves the buttocks bare,^[4][15] which Word Origins notes can lead to confusion between the two uses.^[15] The verb, to furnish or fasten with a thong, is recorded from 1225, and to flog with a thong from 1746.^[4] In dialect, Wright records it for a leather bootlace or shoelace, for a strap formerly used to punish pupils in Cornish schools, and as a verb for beating and, in Somerset, for cider turning thick and ropy.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 950 – Old English þwong, a narrow strip of leather.^[11][4]
• 1225 – the verb, to fasten or bind with a thong.^[4]
• c. 1380 – to cut large thongs of another man's leather, to be lavish with another's goods.^[4]
• 1592 – a strip used for flogging; the lash of a whip.^[4]
• 1665 – a similar strip of another material, such as a plant stem.^[4]
• 1746 – the verb, to flog with a thong.^[4]
• 1967 – a flip-flop sandal, in Australia and the United States.^[4] Etymonline finds thong sandals by 1965.^[7]
• 1975 – a skimpy garment like a G-string.^[4] Etymonline dates it, as a kind of bikini briefs, to 1990.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow strip of leather or hide used for fastening or tying something: She tied the parcel with a leather thong.^[17][3][4]
2. A whip or the lash of a whip, especially one of leather.^[17][3][4]
3. A sandal held on the foot by a strap passing between the toes; a flip-flop (chiefly in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States).^[17][3][4]
4. A skimpy item of swimwear or underwear with a narrow strip of material passing between the buttocks, like a G-string.^[17][3][4]
5. A root cutting, as of horseradish.^[3][4]

Verb

1. To furnish or fasten something with a thong.^[3][4]
2. To lash or flog with a thong.^[3][4]

Word family

• thonged

Related words

• twinge
• whang

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ 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)