verge

verge¹ rod; edge, brink

Etymology tree of verge¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin virga

English verge

From the same root · verge¹

Latin virgatus ← virga

Latin virgeus ← virga

Etymology

The rod or edge is inherited from Middle English verge,^[5][6] borrowed from Old French verge (“twig, branch; measuring rod; penis; rod of office”),^[2][7][5][1] inherited from Latin virga (“shoot, rod, stick, twig”),^[2][8][5][3] a word of unknown or uncertain origin.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster and Partridge connect the Latin word with the source of whisk.^[3][9] It is also the source of verga, verga and verga,^[5] and of virgule and virgate.^[1][5] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the first half of the 12th century, meaning a branch, rod or stick, a staff of authority, the penis, and the area subject to the jurisdiction of the Lord High Steward.^[10] The verb meaning to border, to edge, is formed from the noun.^{[7][8][2][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The penis: before 1400, in a Stockholm medical manuscript.^[7][1][12] Etymonline gives "rod, staff" about 1400.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense "penis" soon dropped out of use, although the word is still a technical term for the male organ of some invertebrates (from 1774).^[12][1][7] It was replaced by "rod or wand carried as an emblem of authority", recorded from 1493,^[7][12] and the meaning "edge" grew from this: to be within the verge was to be within the area subject to the Lord High Steward, whose rod of office symbolized his authority, originally a radius of twelve miles round the king's court.^{[1][13][5][2]} Weekley called it "a very curious sense-development".^[13] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins suggests instead the idea of a rod used as a boundary marker.^[12] Barnhart records the border or margin of an object from 1459, the outermost edge of a wide area from 1593, in Shakespeare's Richard II, and the brink, the point at which something begins, from 1602;^[8] the phrase on the verge of is attested by 1858.^[2] The rod lived on in technical uses, such as the spindle of the balance in an old watch escapement (1704).^[7][2] The verb, to provide with a border, appears in the early 17th century,^[7][8] and its intransitive uses, to lie next to something (1789) and to border on a state or condition (1827), followed.^[7] A verger is etymologically someone who carries an official rod.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1400 – the penis.^[7]
• 1459 – the border or margin of an object.^[8]
• 1493 – a rod or wand carried as an emblem of office.^[7]
• 1593 – the outermost edge of an extensive area, in Richard II.^[8]
• 1602 – the brink, the point at which something begins.^[8]
• 1621 – verb, to provide with a border (1605 in Barnhart).^[7][8]
• 1704 – watchmaking: the spindle of the balance in a vertical escapement.^[7]
• 1774 – zoology: the male organ of an invertebrate.^[7]
• 1789 – verb, to lie next to or along something (1787 in Barnhart).^[7][8]
• 1827 – verb, to border on a state or condition.^[7]
• 1858 – on the verge of, on the point of.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An edge, rim or margin.^[14][15]
2. The point beyond which something happens; the brink: The company was on the verge of collapse.^[14][15][12]
3. (British) A strip of grass along the side of a road.^[14][15]
4. (architecture) The edge of the roof tiles that projects over a gable.^[14][15][16]
5. A rod or staff carried before a bishop, dean or other official as an emblem of office.^[3][15][7]
6. (horology) The spindle of the balance in an old vertical escapement.^[14][3][7]
7. (zoology) The male organ of some invertebrates.^[3][7][15]

Verb

1. verge on: to come close to, or border on, a quality or condition: His calm verged on indifference.^[3][7][15]
2. To lie next to or along something.^[3][7]
3. To form or provide a border for.^[3][7]

Word family

• verger
• vergeboard

verge² to incline, tend

Etymology tree of verge²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vergo

English verge

Etymology

The verb meaning to incline is borrowed from Latin vergō (“to bend, turn, incline, slope down”),^{[7][8][2][3][15]} from Proto-Indo-European *werg- (“to turn”), from the root *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[2][17][4] The Latin verb is also the source of converge and diverge,^[1][7] and Merriam-Webster and Barnhart relate it to wrench.^[3][8] Its use was much influenced by the verb formed from the noun, especially in “verge on”.^[13][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the sun, to descend toward the horizon: 1610, in Giles Fletcher's Christ's Victory.^[7][8][3]

Semantic evolution

From the sinking sun the verb spread to movement in any direction, especially downwards (1661, in Fuller),^[7][2] and to inclining or tending toward a state or condition (1664).^[7] Later uses are to lie or extend toward a point (1726), to pass gradually into something else (1757, in Burke) and to approach a shade of colour (1815).^[7] Walter Scott still used the old sense in The Talisman: "The light was now verging low".^[12] A noun verge, the act of inclining, was used briefly in 1661–62.^[7]

Timeline

• 1610 – of the sun, to sink toward the horizon.^[7][8]
• 1661 – to move in a certain direction; to extend.^[7]
• 1664 – to incline or tend toward a state or condition.^[7]
• 1726 – to lie or extend toward a point.^[7]
• 1757 – to pass gradually into something else.^[7]
• 1815 – to approach a shade of colour.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To incline or tend toward a state, condition or goal: The debate verged toward open hostility.^[3][7][15]
2. To move or extend in a particular direction.^[3][7]
3. To pass gradually from one state into another, as one colour into another: a blue that verges into grey.^[3][7]
4. Of the sun, to sink toward the horizon.^[3][7][15]