tong

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɒŋ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɔŋ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /tɑŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɒŋ

Etymology 1

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”).

Noun

tong (plural tongs)

1. (mostly plural) An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands.
   • 1998, Alberdina Houtman, Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz, editors, Sanctity of time and space in tradition and modernity, page 232:

     […] 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?

Derived terms

• pipe tong
• tonging
• port tong
• tooth and tong

Translations

Verb

tong (third-person singular simple present tongs, present participle tonging, simple past and past participle tonged)

1. (intransitive) To use tongs.
2. (transitive) To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs.

Translations

See also

• tongs

Etymology 2

From Cantonese 堂 (tong⁴).

Noun

tong (plural tongs)

1. a Chinese lineage organization responsible for managing ancestral land
   • 1995, Legislative Council of Hong Kong, “Block Crown Lease (Cheung Chau) Ordinance”, in Hong Kong Government Gazette‎, page A2772:

     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.

2. a Chinese secret society or gang

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• triad
• yakuza

Etymology 3

Noun

tong (plural tongs)

1. Obsolete spelling of tongue
   • 1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster:

     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.

See also

Afrikaans

Afrikaans Wikipedia has an article on:

tong

Wikipedia ^af

Etymology

From Dutch tong, from Middle Dutch tonge, from Old Dutch tunga, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔŋ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tong (plural tonge)

1. tongue

Derived terms

• biltong
• tongvis

Chuukese

Noun

tong

1. love

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

tong

Wikipedia ^nl

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔŋ/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tong
• Rhymes: -ɔŋ

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch tonge, from Old Dutch tunga, from Proto-West Germanic *tungā, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

Noun

tong f (plural tongen, diminutive tongetje n)

1. tongue

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: tong
• Negerhollands: tong, toṅ, tung
  • → Virgin Islands Creole: ton (dated)
• Skepi Creole Dutch: tunk
• →? Sranan Tongo: tongo
  • → Aukan: tongo
  • → Kwinti: tongo
  • → Saramaccan: tongò

Etymology 2

From etymology 1.

Noun

tong m (plural tongen, diminutive tongetje n)

1. A kind of flatfish, the common sole, Solea solea.

   Synonym: zeetong

French

Etymology

From Australian English thong.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔ̃ɡ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tong f (plural tongs)

1. flip-flop, thong

   Synonyms: (informal) clic-clac, (Canada, informal) gougonne, (Belgium, Africa) slache, (West Africa) tapette, claquette

Hokkien

Indonesian

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:

tong

Wikipedia ^id

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: tong

Etymology 1

From Malay tong, from Hokkien 桶 (thóng).

Noun

tong (first-person possessive tongku, second-person possessive tongmu, third-person possessive tongnya)

1. barrel

   Synonym: tahang

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic.

Noun

tong (first-person possessive tongku, second-person possessive tongmu, third-person possessive tongnya)

1. sound of a gong, kentungan.

Etymology 3

From Betawi , from Hokkien 童 (tâng/tông).

Noun

tong (first-person possessive tongku, second-person possessive tongmu, third-person possessive tongnya)

1. (dialect, Jakarta) Clipping of entong (“boy”).

Further reading

• “tong” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Malay

Etymology 1

From Chinese 桶. Related to tahang.

Noun

tong (plural tong-tong, informal 1st possessive tongku, 2nd possessive tongmu, 3rd possessive tongnya)

1. barrel, tub, bin

Descendants

• Indonesian: tong

Etymology 2

From Dutch ton.

Noun

tong (plural tong-tong, informal 1st possessive tongku, 2nd possessive tongmu, 3rd possessive tongnya)

1. ton

Mandarin

Romanization

tong

1. Nonstandard spelling of tōng.
2. Nonstandard spelling of tóng.
3. Nonstandard spelling of tǒng.
4. Nonstandard spelling of tòng.

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Middle English

Noun

tong

1. Alternative form of tonge (“tongue”)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse tǫng.

Noun

tong f (definite singular tonga, indefinite plural tenger, definite plural tengene)

1. (a pair of) pliers, pincers

Derived terms

• knipetong

See also

• tang (Bokmål)

References

• “tong” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Uzbek

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic *taŋ.

Noun

tong (plural tonglar)

1. dawn, daybreak

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -oŋ

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key):
• (Huế) IPA^(key): ~
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key):

Adjective

tong

1. done for, screwed

   mất tong một buổi chiều mà chẳng tiến triển gì ― an afternoon wasted without any significant progress

   • 2001, Chu Lai, Cuộc đời dài lắm, NXB Văn học, page 199:

     Mưa. Thế là lại đi tong một ngày mủ vì mưa nữa rồi!

     Rain. So yet another day's worth of latex gone to waste because of the rain!