Forms: α. 4–7 tange, 7–8 tangue, 8–9 dial. taing, 5– tang. β. 5–6 tong(g)e. [Known in literature from 14th c., but prob. in much earlier use in northern Eng.: a. ON. tange point, spit of land, tang of a knife, etc., Norw., Da. tange, Sw. tång(e, Færoese tangi.]
I. 1. A projecting pointed part or instrument.
a. The tongue of a serpent, formerly thought to be the stinging organ; the sting of an insect. (Now dial.)
a. 1350. St. Matthew, 58, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 132. Men þat þai [serpents] bifore had biten And with þaire tanges ful sare smetyn.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 496/2. Tongge, of a bee, aculeus.
c. 1440. Staunton, St. Patrick’s Purg. (1900), 61. Þei maden to me an hudious noyse … with blaryng owt of here brennyng tanges.
1483. Cath. Angl., 378/1. A Tange of A nedyr, aculeus, acus, pugio.
1530. Palsgr., 281/2. Tonge of a bee, esguillon.
1787. Grose, Provinc. Gloss., Tang,… a sting.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Tang, a sting or point.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Tang,… the tongue of a snake, with which people believe it has the power of stinging…. The sting of an insect.
b. fig. A ‘sting,’ a pang.
1724. Ramsay, Health, 156. The flagg’d embrace, and mercenary squeeze, The tangs of guilt, and terrors of disease.
1868. Lanier, Jacquerie, I. 73. Oh, sharper tangs pierced through this perfumed May.
c. dial. A sharp point or spike; the pin of a buckle; one of the prongs or tines of a fork; a prong or tine of a stag’s horn.
The sense ‘leg of a pair of tongs’ in R. Holme may have been derived from the tang of a fork.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 132/2. [Of a horn] The lower Tang [is] the Brow-Antlier. [Ibid., III. xiv. (Roxb.), 7/1. He beare[th] Sable, a paire of Tonges closed in ye tanges Argent.]
1781. J. Hutton, Tour to Caves (ed. 2), Gloss., Tang, a pike.
1828. Craven Gloss., Tang, Teng,… the prong of a fork. ‘A fork wi three tangs.’
1843. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 147/1. On the lower edge [of the excavator or shovel] are four tangs or points, which serve to penetrate and loosen the soil.
1868. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Tang, the tongue of a buckle, the prong of a fork.
1877. E. Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss., Tang, the tongue of a buckle.
d. † The barb of a hook (obs.); the tongue of a Jew’s-harp (also fig.).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 80/1. The tongue of the hooke is that little tang or slip on the inside of it, which … hinders the hooke from comeing out. Some call it the barbe.
1887. Suppl. to Jamieson, Tang o’ the trump,… the tongue of the Scottish trump or Jew’s harp;… the chief or most important person in a company.
e. (See quot.) dial. (So in Old Norse.)
1822. Hibbert, Shetl. Isles, 518. A narrow stripe of land stretches out that is named the Taing of Torness. The word Taing expresses the character of the low projecting cape. [Cf. p. 479 Ting of Torness.]
2. An extension of a metal tool or instrument, as a chisel, file, knife, ax, coulter, pike, scythe, sword, etc., by which it is secured to its handle or stock.
Originally a spike or rod to thrust into the stock; hence extended to a piece of any shape or form having the same function: see quots. Now the chief literal sense.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 496/2. Tongge of a knyfe, pirasmus.
14[?]. Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, 735/19, 20. Hoc tenaculum, Hic spirasmus, a tang.
1483. Cath. Angl., 378/1. A Tange of A knyfe, parasinus.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653), 67. The Stayl must be plated with Iron,… through which, as also the Wood, the tange of the Coulter must come.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 321/2. The Cheeks, or Plates, or Tangs [of a hammer are] the Irons which hold the Head on. Ibid., xxii. (Roxb.), 284/1. The handle is neere a yard long, with an Hoop at the end for the Tang of the Trowell to be fastned in.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 281. The tang, or part by which it [a penknife blade] is to be held during grinding, and ultimately to be fixed in the haft.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 226. In forming the tangs of most files, it is necessary to make the shoulders perfectly square and sharp.
1864. R. F. Burton, Dahome, 44. African battle-axes with … the tangs set in the hafts.
1884. W. H. Rideing in Harper’s Mag., June, 78/2. The blade … is welded, in the case of a dinner-knife, to a piece of iron, which forms the ‘tang’ or the part that is inserted in the handle.
1904. Budge, Guide 3rd & 4th Egypt. Rooms Brit. Mus., 7. Two bronze ribbed spear-heads, with tangs.
b. A root or fang of a tooth; a root or branch of a tree. Now chiefly dial.
1715. Molyneux, in Phil. Trans., XXIX. 372. Strong Tangs or Roots,… by which the Tooth receives its Sense and Nourishment.
1886. Holland, Chester Gloss., Tangs, (2) the principal roots or branches of a tree.
3. One of various fishes having spines: see quots.
1734. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 317. Turdus rhomboïdalis. The Tang. This Fish hath on each side the Tail a sharp pointed Bone, which it can erect in its own Defence.
1903. Webster, Suppl, Tang,… any West Indian species of surgeon fish, as the common tang (Teuthis hepatus), the blue tang (T. cæruleus), and the ocean tang (T. Bahianus).
4. Stereotyping. a. The piece of superfluous metal formed at the end of the plate; the pour-piece. b. That part of the papier-maché flong or mold which overlaps the tail end of the matrix so as to prevent the metal from flowing under the end of the mold in the casting-box; the tail-piece.
a. 1880. F. J. F. Wilson, Stereo- & Electrotyping, 43 When the casting is sufficiently cool the superfluous metal at the head, called the ‘tang’ or ‘pour-piece,’ may be removed by the circular saw or sharp-pointed hook. Ibid., 65. The ‘pour-piece,’ or tang, is removed from the top end of the plate, and the bevel formed at the same time.
b. 1891. in Cent. Dict.
1910. H. Hart, Lett. to Editor. Occasionally the tang is lengthened, for use in a large casting-box, by pasting on to it a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard.
II. 5. A penetrating taste or flavor; usually (but not always) an after-taste, or a disagreeable or alien taste from contact with something else.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 496/2. Tongge, or sharpnesse of lycure yn tastynge, acumen.
1582. Breton, Floorish vpon Fancie (Grosart), 41/2. At first, me thought the tast was reasonable good: But … it left (alas) a bitter tang behinde.
1598. Florio, Piccante, a tartenes vpon the toong, a tang left vpon the toong.
1624. A. Wotton, Runne from Rome, 3. (As new vessels doe) keeping a tang of the first liquor wherewith I was seasoned.
1660. Fuller, Mixt Contempl. (1841), 225. The best oil is said to have no taste, that is, no tang.
1736. Bailey, Househ. Dict., 100. Brandy either French or English, that has no burnt tang or other ill taste.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), IX. xv. A strong tang of tallow or onion in your bread and butter.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Tang, a strong flavour; generally, but not always, an unpleasant one.
1843. Longf., Span. Stud., I. iv. I tell you this is nothing but Vino Tinto of La Mancha, with a tang of the swine-skin.
1883. Mrs. E. H. Rollins, New Eng. Bygones, 180. Apples … picked freshly fallen from the earth had a keen spicy tang.
fig. 1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus, i. 15. The sweetest sinnes would carry a bitter tang, if we would but remember what sweete comfort of the creatures we haue forfeited for them.
b. A pungent odor, a penetrating scent.
1858. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., I. xxx. 117. All places smell of hangman, it is everywhere the same tang; we might as well be hooped up with the body of a deceased felon on a gibbet of the olden style.
1883. Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 163. Like the smell of a washing-house, but with a shrewd tang of the sea salt.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, xxxvii. 262. The tang of the cottage peat reek hangs like the peculiar incense of home.
1903. Sat. Rev., 14 Nov., 607. The air has a tang of its own, recognisable even in the closest lanes.
c. ? A pungent or stinging effect; ‘something that leaves a sting or pain behind it’ (J.).
But the meaning here is disputed: cf. TANG sb.2 Shakespeare may in this use have associated the two words.
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. ii. 52. But none of vs car’d for Kate. For she had a tongue with a tang, Would cry to a Sailor, goe hang!
6. fig. A slight ‘smack’ of some quality, opinion, habit, form of speech, etc.; a ‘suspicion,’ a suggestion; a trace, a touch of something.
1593. Harvey, New Letter, Wks. (Grosart), I. 285. I cannot but … conceiue as it were a tang of pleasure in mine owne displeasure.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Hum. Lieut. I. i. Before I thought ye To have a little breeding—some little tang of Gentry.
1645. Pagitt, Heresiogr. (1662), 137. The teachers have a strong tange of Pelagius.
1651. Life Father Sarpi (1676), 37. He had always kept a tang of the Neapolitan Dialect.
1657. Austen, Fruit Trees, II. 153. Although the graft changes the sap of the wild stock into its owne nature, yet … a tang of the wild nature remains.
1751. Gray, Wks. (1825), II. 162. The language has a tang of Shakespear that suits an old fashioned fable very well.
1854. H. Rogers, Ess., II. i. 74. A still more serious fault in Locke is what we may venture to call a tang, if not of materialism, of something that displays a latent tendency towards it.
b. Distinctive or characteristic flavor or quality.
1868. Alex. Smith, Last Leaves, 242. You cannot touch the tang of any literary coterie.
1900. H. Harland, Cardinal’s Snuff-box, xv. 122. His speaking-voice … was sweet, but with a kind of trenchant edge upon it, a genial asperity, that gave it character, tang.
1903. Daily Chron., 8 Oct. Such a phrase as ‘Food-taxers’ has not the requisite tang.
