twinge

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English twengen (“to pinch, tweak”),^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English twengan (“to pinch, squeeze”),^[5][3][6][2] from Proto-Germanic *twangijaną.^[1][7] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford compare Middle Low German twengen and Old High German zwengen, from the Germanic base also seen in Middle High German zwange (“tongs”).^[8][9][10] Many dictionaries go further and connect it with Old Frisian thwinga, Old Norse þvinga, Dutch dwingen and German zwingen (“to compel, force”), and with thong;^[7][4][11] Etymonline reports Watkins's Proto-Indo-European *twengh- (“to press in on”).^[7] The OED rejects this: it calls the Old English verb of obscure etymology and finds no evidence of a link with the Continental forms meaning "to constrain, oppress".^[6][12] Barnhart also calls it uncertain.^[3] The noun, recorded from 1548, comes from the verb.^[6][9][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pinch or squeeze, in Old English, about 1000 according to Barnhart.^[5][3] The Owl and the Nightingale, about 1250, says of a pair of strong claws: "þu twengest þar mid so doþ a tonge".^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant an act of tweaking or pinching, from 1548 until 1692.^[6][9] From 1608, in Middleton, it was a sharp pinching pain,^[6][3] often that of gout or rheumatism,^[6] and later, in 1622, a mental pang such as a prick of conscience.^[6][7] The verb then took its modern senses from the noun, to feel a sharp pain in 1640 and to cause one in 1647.^[6][3] Johnson (1755) puts the sudden sharp pain first and the tweak second, quoting L'Estrange on a master who gives "so many blows and twinges by the ears".^[13] A verb meaning to oppress, recorded before 1300, is probably based on a misunderstanding of earlier glosses.^[6] The old sense of pinching has survived only in dialect.^[6][11] In northern England, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Kent a twinge was also an earwig, recorded from 1790.^[6][14]

Timeline

• about 1000 – Old English verb, to pinch, squeeze.^[5][3]
• about 1250 – twengen, to pinch, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[3]
• 1548 – noun, an act of tweaking or pinching (obsolete by 1692).^[6][3]
• 1608 – noun, a sharp, momentary pain.^[6][3] Etymonline has about 1600.^[7]
• 1622 – noun, a mental pang.^[6][7]
• 1640 – verb, to feel a sharp pain.^[6][3]
• 1647 – verb, to cause a sharp pain; to prick the conscience.^[6]
• 1790 – dialect noun, an earwig.^[6][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sudden, brief, stabbing pain: He felt a twinge in his left knee on the stairs.^[15][11][6]
2. A sharp pang of emotion or conscience: She felt a twinge of regret as the train pulled out.^[15][11][6]
3. (obsolete, 1548–1692) A tweak or pinch.^[6][11][9]

Verb

1. To feel a sudden sharp pain.^[11][15][6]
2. To cause someone a sudden sharp pain.^[11][15][6]
3. (dialect) To pinch, tweak or pluck.^[11][6][9]

Related words

• thong

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b 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)
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins