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gongo

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word gongo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1801 an article in the Mercurio de España More words from the 19th century
Borrowed from
French gong
Ultimate origin
Javanese gong

Pronunciation

  • /ˈɡonɡo/, [ˈɡõŋ.ɡo][1]

Forms

gongo m (plural gongos)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gong or English gong, which the DHLE gives as equally possible sources.[2] Both words come from Malay gung, from Javanese gong.[2] The French word is recorded from 1681 and the English one from about 1600.[2] The DLE derives it from Spanish gong, and Moliner takes that form from English.[3][4] The boxing sense of Puerto Rico comes from English.[5][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in an article in the Mercurio de España of 1801, is the percussion instrument of Asian origin: a metal disc hung from a stand that vibrates when struck with a mallet.[2]

Semantic evolution

Domínguez (1846) describes it as an instrument used by the Chinese and the Indians.[7] Rubén Darío gives the thunder a gongo aterrador “a terrifying gong” in a poem of about 1887.[8] From 1916, in the Barcelona paper Mundo Deportivo, it is the bell struck to mark the start and end of a round in boxing; only the DAMER records this sense, and only for Puerto Rico.[2][5] The Academy's dictionary added “a large ship's bell” in 1956, and Malaret (1931) recorded a Mexican sense “a peso coin”.[2] Its synonyms for the instrument are batintín, gong and tantán.[2]

Timeline

  • 1801 – first record, in the Mercurio de España.[2]
  • 1846 – Domínguez enters it as an instrument of the Chinese and Indians.[7]
  • c. 1887 – Rubén Darío uses it of the thunder.[8]
  • 1916 – first record of the boxing bell, in Mundo Deportivo.[2]
  • 1956 – the Academy adds the sense “large ship's bell”.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A large ship's bell.[3]
  2. A gong, the same as batintín: Un golpe de gongo anunció la cena.[3][4][1]
  3. (Puerto Rico, boxing) The bell that marks the rounds.[5][6]
  4. (Puerto Rico) A bell or cowbell.[1]
  • gong

Usage notes

Moliner gives gong as the usual form and gongo as the less frequent one.[4] A Canarian gongo “dent, small hollow”, perhaps from Portuguese, is a separate word: Maffiotte (before 1887) records hacer un gongo, striking one spinning top with the point of another, and today it is the small hole used in the children's game of boliche.[9][10][11] In Andalusia gongo is a form of hongo “mushroom”.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. gongo
  3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. gongo
  4. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gongo
  5. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. gongo
  6. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. gongo
  7. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 882
  8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. gongo
  9. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. gongo
  10. ^ Maffiotte, Luis (1993), Los canarismos (manuscript c. 1887), ed. Lothar Siemens Hernández, Las Palmas: Instituto de Estudios Canarios, p. 80
  11. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. gongo
  12. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 302

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Gongo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/gongo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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