pang
English
Etymology
The origin of the noun is uncertain;[1] it is possibly derived from Middle English *pange, perhaps an altered form of prange, prōnge (“affliction, agony, pain; pointed instrument”) as in prongys of deth (“pangs of death, death throes”), from Latin pronga; compare Middle Dutch prange, pranghe (“instrument for pinching”) (modern Dutch prang (“horse restraint; fetter, neck iron”)), Middle Low German prange (“pole, stake; (possibly) kind of pillory or stocks”),[1][2][3] Old English pyngan (“to prick”). The word may thus be related to prong.
The verb is derived from the noun.[4]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: păng, IPA(key): /pæŋ/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -æŋ
Noun
pang (plural pangs)
- Often in plural: a paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; a feeling of sudden and transitory agony; a throe.
- 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii], page 137, column 1:
- War[wick]. See how the pangs of death do make him grin. / Sal[isbury]. Diſturbe him not, let him paſſe peaceably.
- c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iv], page 269:
- He is knight dubb'd with vnhatche'd Rapier, and on carpet conſideration, but he is a diuell in priuate brall, soules and bodies hath he diuorc'd three, and his incenſement at this moment is ſo implacable, that ſatisfaction can be none, but by pangs of death and ſepulcher: Hob, nob, is his word: giu't or take't.
- a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Written in Lady Howe’s Ovid’s Epistles”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior, Esq. […], Edinburgh: Printed by Mundell and Son, […], published 1793, OCLC 931361946; republished in Robert Anderson, editor, The Works of the British Poets. […], volume VII, London: Printed for John & Arthur Arch; and for Bell & Bradfute, and J. Mundell & Co. Edinburgh, 1795, OCLC 221535929, page 456, column 1:
- But, oh! what pangs torment the deſtin’d heart, / That feels the wound, yet dare not ſhow the dart; / What eaſe could Ovid to his ſorrows give, / Who muſt not ſpeak, and therefore cannot live?
- 1862, Christina Rossetti, “In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems, Cambridge; London: Macmillan & Co., […], OCLC 36794247, page 31:
- "Will it hurt much?"—"No, mine own: / I wish I could bear the pang for both." / "I wish I could bear the pang alone: / Courage, dear, I am not loth."
- 1888 May, Oscar Wilde, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: David Nutt, […], OCLC 595167, pages 37–38:
- So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot through her. Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song, for she sang of the Love that is perfected by Death, of the Love that dies not in the tomb.
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- Often in plural: a sudden sharp feeling of an emotional or mental nature, as of joy or sorrow.
- 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], OCLC 55746801, pages 158–159:
- He had not gone far, when coming on towards him he beheld the portly gentleman, who had walked into his counting-house the day before, and said, "Scrooge and Marley's, I believe?" It sent a pang across his heart to think how this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it.
- 1867 February, [Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.], “The Guardian Angel”, in The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics, volume XIX, number CXII, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, […], OCLC 612185692, chapter VII (Myrtle’s Letter.—The Young Men’s Pursuit.), page 141, column 2:
- He was startled with a piece of information which gave him such an exquisite pang of delight that he could hardly keep the usual quiet of his demeanor.
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Derived terms
Translations
Verb
pang (third-person singular simple present pangs, present participle panging, simple past and past participle panged)
- (transitive) To cause to have great pain or suffering; to torment, to torture.
- 1613, William Shakespeare; [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii], page 214, column 2:
- Yet if that quarrell, Fortune, to diuorce / It from the bearer, 'tis a ſufferance, panging / As ſoule and bodies ſeuering.
- 1919, Christopher Morley, “On Unanswering Letters”, in Mince Pie: Adventures on the Sunny Side of Grub Street, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, OCLC 753772533, page 40:
- And perhaps a not altogether false little story could be written about a man who never visited those most dear to him, because it panged him so to say good-bye when he had to leave.
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Translations
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References
- “pang, n.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2005; “pang” in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press. - “prong, n.2”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2007. - “prōnge, n.” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 3 December 2018.
- “pang, v.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2005.
Further reading
- pang in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- pang in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
Estonian
Declension
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Javanese
Ludian
Mandarin
Romanization
pang
Usage notes
- English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.
Min Nan
For pronunciation and definitions of pang – see 幫 (“group; gang; etc.”). (This character, pang, is the Pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 幫.) |
Romansch
Etymology
From Latin pānis, pānem.
Swedish
Noun
pang n
- bang, explosion
- 1887, August Strindberg, Hemsöborna
- när plötsligen det hördes ett pang! utanför på gården och rasslet av glasskärvor.
- when suddenly they heard a bang! outside in the yard and the sound of broken glass.
- när plötsligen det hördes ett pang! utanför på gården och rasslet av glasskärvor.
- Han vaknade med ett pang.
- He woke up with a bang.
- 1887, August Strindberg, Hemsöborna
- (colloquial, dated) pension house, hotel; Contraction of pensionat.
Usage notes
- The Swedish translation of John Cleese's Fawlty Towers (1975), "Pang i bygget" (1979) is a pun based on both definitions.
Tagalog
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /paŋ/
Prefix
pang
- Adjective prefix - an action or a practice associated with the thing or action expressed by the root
- instrumentative case of the noun - a tool or an instrument that is used to perform the action expressed by the root
- instrumentative case of the noun - native speakers sometimes use the prefix pan- instead of pang- without any change in the meaning of the word