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Tong
Definitions
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 2 A place in the United Kingdom:; A hamlet in Headcorn parish, Maidstone district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TQ8346). countable, uncountable
- 3 A place in the United Kingdom:; A village and civil parish in eastern Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ7907). countable, uncountable
- 4 A place in the United Kingdom:; A small village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE2230). countable, uncountable
- 5 A place in the United Kingdom:; A village north of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Western Isles council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NB4436). countable, uncountable
- 1 An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands. plural
"[…] these attributes are concrete expressions of God's care and providence and therefore not man-made. This explains the quite bizarre presence of a ‘pair’ of tongs in some lists: in order to make a tong one needs a tong, and how could the first tong be made without a tong?"
- 2 A Chinese lineage organization responsible for managing ancestral land.
"An Ordinance to provide for the termination of the Block Crown Lease of Cheung Chau granted to Wong Wai Tsak Tong and for sub-lessees under the Block Crown Lease to hold directly from the Crown."
- 3 Obsolete spelling of tongue. alt-of, obsolete
"Or plaine and perfite way of teachyng children, to vnderstand, write, and speake, the Latin tong, but specially purposed for the priuate brynging vp of youth in Ientlemen and Noble mens houses, and commodious also for all such, as haue forgot the Latin tonge, and would, by themselues, without a Scholemaster, in short tyme, and with small paines, recouer a sufficient habilitie, to vnderstand, write, and speake Latin."
- 4 A Chinese secret society or gang.
- 1 To use tongs. intransitive
- 2 To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs. transitive
Etymology
From Middle English tonge (“tongs, fang”), tange, from Old English tange, from Proto-West Germanic *tangu, from Proto-Germanic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognate with Old Norse tǫng (modern Icelandic töng), Old High German zanga (modern German Zange). Other cognates include Sanskrit दशति (dáśati, “to bite”) and Albanian dang (“bite, nip”).
From Middle English tonge (“tongs, fang”), tange, from Old English tange, from Proto-West Germanic *tangu, from Proto-Germanic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognate with Old Norse tǫng (modern Icelandic töng), Old High German zanga (modern German Zange). Other cognates include Sanskrit दशति (dáśati, “to bite”) and Albanian dang (“bite, nip”).
From Cantonese 堂 (tong⁴).
For the surname: Borrowed from Cantonese 湯／汤 (tong1), Cantonese 唐 (tong4), Mandarin 佟 (Tóng), Mandarin 童 (Tóng), etc.
See also for "tong"
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