pang

See also: pāng, páng, pǎng, and pàng

English

WOTD – 14 April 2019

Etymology

The origin of the noun is uncertain; 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 Anglo-Latin pronga, of unknown origin. Perhaps connected with 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”), Old English pyngan (“to prick”). The word may thus be related to prong.

The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• enPR: păng, IPA^(key): /pæŋ/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋ

Noun

pang (plural pangs)

1. (often in the plural) A paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; a feeling of sudden and transitory agony; a throe.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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; 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, 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?

   • 1888 May, Oscar Wilde, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: David Nutt, […], →OCLC, 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.

2. (often in the plural) A sudden sharp feeling of an emotional or mental nature, as of joy or sorrow.
   • 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, 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.

Derived terms

• birth pangs
• pang of conscience

Translations

paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish

• Dutch: pijnscheut (nl), steek (nl)
• German: Schmerz (de) m, Stechen (de) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: οξύς πόνος m (oxýs pónos), σουβλιά (el) f (souvliá)
• Russian: внезапная (ru) (vnezapnaja), боль (ru) f (bolʹ), уко́л (ru) (ukól)

sudden sharp feeling of a mental or emotional nature

• Dutch: aanval (nl)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Anfall (de) f, Stich (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: σκίρτημα (el) n (skírtima)
• Portuguese: surto (pt)
• Russian: угрызе́ние (ru) n (ugryzénije)

Verb

pang (third-person singular simple present pangs, present participle panging, simple past and past participle panged)

1. (transitive) To cause to have great pain or suffering; to torment, to torture.
   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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, 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.

Translations

to cause to have great pain or suffering — see also torment,‎ torture

• Italian: affliggere (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: му́чить (ru) (múčitʹ), коло́ть (ru) (kolótʹ), разрыва́ть (ru) (razryvátʹ)

Further reading

• “pang”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “pang”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

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Estonian

Noun

pang (genitive [please provide], partitive [please provide])

1. bucket

   Synonym: ämber

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

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Javanese

Noun

pang

1. branch

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Ludian

Noun

pang

1. handle

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Mandarin

Romanization

pang

1. Nonstandard spelling of pāng.
2. Nonstandard spelling of páng.
3. Nonstandard spelling of pǎng.
4. Nonstandard spelling of pàng.

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.

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Min Nan

For pronunciation and definitions of pang – see 幫 (“group; gang; etc.”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 幫).

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Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Puter) paun
• (Sutsilvan) pàn
• (Vallader) pan

Etymology

From Latin pānis, pānem.

Noun

pang m

1. (Surmiran) bread

Noun

pang m (plural pangs)

1. (Surmiran) loaf of bread

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Swedish

Interjection

pang

1. bang (verbal percussive sound)

Noun

pang n

1. 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.

   Han vaknade med ett pang.

   He woke up with a bang.

2. (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.

Declension

Declension of pang
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	pang	panget	pang	pangen
Genitive	pangs	pangets	pangs	pangens

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Tagalog

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /paŋ/

Prefix

pang

1. Adjective prefix - an action or a practice associated with the thing or action expressed by the root

   pang- + babae (“woman”)=pang-babae (“for women only”)

   Damit pang-babae

   Women's clothes

2. instrumentative case of the noun - a tool or an instrument that is used to perform the action expressed by the root

   pang-+takip (“a cover”)=pangtakip (“an instrument used to cover something”)

3. instrumentative case of the noun - native speakers sometimes use the prefix pan- instead of pang- without any change in the meaning of the word

   pan-+takip (“a cover”)=pantakip (“an instrument used to cover something”)

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Veps

Noun

pang

1. handle