tangi

Forms

tangi m (genitive tanga) (weak an-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *tang-, the base of Proto-Germanic *tangō (“tongs”);^[1] Hellquist gives the stem as *tangan-.^[2] De Vries compares Middle Low German tange (“sand ridge between two marshes”) and refers it to tǫng (“tongs”).^[3] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon also relates tengja (“to join”) and the adjective Middle Low German tanger (“sharp, biting”), Old High German zangar, and thinks it hardly an ablaut form of tunga (“tongue”);^[4] Hellquist rejects that link too.^[2] Torp and Falk–Torp, on the other hand, take it as an ablaut form of the word for “tongue”, compare German Zunge for the tang of a blade.^[5][6] The Indo-European root is put at Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”).^[7][8]

Unnasalised forms of the same base are Norwegian and Old Danish tagge (“point, prong”) and Swedish tagg.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Menota has the word once, as the dative plural tangum, in Holm perg 6 fol (1250–1300).^[9] The sagas cited by the dictionaries show both senses: sverðit brast í tanganum “the sword broke at the tang”, and á tanganum nessins “on the point of the headland”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The two senses, a tongue of land and the spike of a blade that runs into the handle, are both a narrow projecting end;^[10][11] Cleasby–Vigfússon set the land sense first, Fritzner the blade.^[10][11] Falk describes the tang as the part of the blade that the grip encloses.^[12] Poetry also has hryggjar tangi “the end of the back”, and tangi as a word for the sword.^[13][14] The word is frequent in Icelandic place-names.^[10] It continues as Icelandic tangi, Norwegian Nynorsk tange, Swedish tånge and Danish tange.^[4][6] Middle English took it from Norse as tange, the tang of a blade, whence English tang, recorded from the mid-14th century.^[3][6][8] Scottish Gaelic tanga “promontory”, known from place-names in Lewis, is probably from the Norse oblique form tanga.^[15]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – dative plural tangum in Holm perg 6 fol.^[9]
• mid-14th century – English tang, from a Scandinavian source.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. a low, narrow tongue of land, a point running out into the sea; a spit, promontory.^[16][10][17]
2. the tang of a sword or knife, the end of the blade driven into the handle.^[16][11][12]
3. (poetic) a narrow end of something; a sword.^[13][14]

Word family

• eyrartangi
• hjaltatangi

Descendants

• Icelandic tangi^[1]
• Faroese tangi^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk tange^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål tange^[1]
• Swedish tånge^[1]
• Danish tange^[1]
• Middle English tange (English tang)^[8][3]

Related words

• tǫng
• tengja

Usage notes

A different word tangi, seen in útangi “worthless person”, stands in the Snorra Edda among names for despised people; de Vries discusses its uncertain origin.^[3][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. tånge
3. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 581
4. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. tangi
5. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 168
6. ^ a b c Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. tange
7. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. tangi
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. Holm perg 6 fol
10. ^ a b c d e Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 625
11. ^ a b c d Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. tangi
12. ^ a b Falk, Hjalmar (1914), Altnordische Waffenkunde, Kristiania, p. 18
13. ^ a b Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 564
14. ^ a b c Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1860), Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, Hafniæ: Societas regia antiquariorum septentrionalium, p. 810
15. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. tanga
16. ^ a b Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. tangi
17. ^ Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 646