throng

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English throng, also thrang in the north,^[2][3] probably, in shortened form, inherited from Old English geþrang (“crowd, tumult”),^[4][3][2][5] which is related to þringan (“to press, crowd”), the source of thring.^[4][3][6] The OED, revising the entry in 2017, calls the origin uncertain: because that noun has a single secure record, in the “Battle of Maldon”, it allows either a shortening of that word or an unattested *þrang.^[7] Cognates include Middle Dutch dranc, Dutch drang, Middle Low German dranc and German Drang.^[7][3] Ayto and Hoad take the noun instead from Old Norse þrǫng, which most other sources give as a cognate.^{[8][9][7][10]} The Germanic verb appears as Old Saxon thringan, Old High German dringan, þryngva and Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌽 (þreihan, “to crowd, throng; to oppress”),^[11][12][1] and Lithuanian treñkti (“to push, jolt”) is compared from outside that branch,^[11][12] with the root given by Barnhart as Proto-Indo-European *trenk-.^[3] The verb throng comes from the noun according to Etymonline and Barnhart;^[4][3] the Middle English Dictionary has the noun or perhaps the adjective,^[2] while the OED also allows an alteration of the older verb or an unattested *þrangian.^[7] The adjective, in Scots also thrang,^[13][14] is probably from early Scandinavian, compare þrǫngr (“narrow, close, crowded”),^[7][9] although the Middle English Dictionary and the Shorter Oxford derive it from the noun.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A crowd, in early use often a mass of soldiers in battle: about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin.^[7][2] Barnhart dates the noun probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder,^[3] Etymonline to about 1300,^[4] and Barnhart gives the date 993 for geþrang.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The underlying idea is pressing together.^[8] Besides a crowd, the noun meant the act of crowding, from before 1400,^[7] and, chiefly in Scots, oppression, distress or danger, until 1596;^[7][2] in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire a related use for a problem or a minor worry is recorded from 1855 to 1905.^[7] From 1538 it could mean a great number of things, not only of people.^[7][10] The verb moved the same way: at first it meant to squeeze or crush, as in the Cursor Mundi (before 1400, or before 1325 in Barnhart's dating of the text),^[7][3] and to force one's way;^[7][2] the meanings to crowd round and press against (1534, Tyndale's Bible) and to gather in a crowd (about 1565) followed.^[7] Etymonline dates "come or go in a crowd" to the 1530s.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a multitude pressing against each other".^[15] In Scots and northern English the idea of pressure led to a different development: the noun came to mean pressure of work or a busy time (from 1611),^[7][10][16] and the adjective, first "tightly fitting" (before 1400) and "densely packed" (about 1450), came to mean crowded of a place (1557), full of activity of a time (1615) and fully occupied of a person (1627).^[7] The Scots sense of closeness or friendship is recorded from 1768, in A. Ross, for both noun and adjective.^[7][16] Wright's dialect dictionary records the word, often as thrang and in Lancashire and Cheshire also thrunk, from Scotland, Ireland and English counties including Yorkshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire,^[16] and Collins still lists the adjective as Yorkshire dialect for "busy".^[13] A place-name record, Thrangholm in Cumberland (1295), may show the Scandinavian adjective.^[7]

Timeline

• 993 – Old English geþrang, crowd, tumult.^[3]
• c. 1330 – a dense crowd of people, also of soldiers in battle.^[7][2]
• before 1400 – noun, crowding, a crowded condition; also distress, trouble (obsolete by 1596); verb, to squeeze or crush (obsolete by 1825); adjective, tightly fitting (obsolete).^[7]
• c. 1400 – adverb, deeply, busily, in Pearl.^[7]
• c. 1440 – verb, to force one's way (obsolete by 1664).^[7]
• c. 1450 – adjective, densely packed.^[7][2]
• 1534 – verb, to crowd round and press against, in Tyndale's Bible.^[7]
• 1538 – noun, a great number of things.^[7]
• 1557 – adjective, of a place, crowded.^[7]
• c. 1565 – verb, to assemble or move in a crowd.^[7]
• 1604 – verb, of a crowd, to fill a place, in Drayton.^[7]
• 1611 – noun, pressure of work or business.^[7]
• 1627 – adjective, of a person, very busy.^[7]
• 1768 – noun and adjective, intimacy, intimate (Scots).^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A great number of people or animals crowded together; a multitude: A throng of commuters filled the platform.^[13][14][7]
2. A great number of things: a throng of unanswered letters.^[13][14][7]
3. The act of crowding; a crowded condition.^[14][7][10]
4. (Scots and northern English) Pressure of work; a busy time.^[7][10][16]
5. (obsolete, before 1400–1596) Oppression, distress, trouble.^[7][2][10]
6. (Scots, obsolete, 1768–1843) Close friendship or intimacy.^[7][16]

Verb

1. To gather or move in large numbers: Shoppers thronged through the doors.^[13][7][10]
2. To fill a place with a crowd: Tourists thronged the old square.^[13][7][10]
3. To crowd round and press against someone; to jostle.^[13][14][7]
4. (obsolete, before 1400–1825) To press hard; to squeeze or crush.^[7][10][14]
5. (obsolete, c. 1440–1664) To force one's way.^[7][10]

Adjective

1. (Scots and northern English) Fully occupied; busy.^{[13][14][7][10]}
2. (chiefly Scots and northern English) Crowded; closely packed.^[14][7][10]
3. (Scots) Closely associated; intimate.^[14][7][10]

Adverb

1. (Scots and northern English) Closely; in large numbers.^[7][10][2]
2. Busily or earnestly; now in Shetland.^[7][10]

Word family

• overthrong
• unthronged

Related words

• thring
• thrang

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ 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 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e 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)