wong

See also: Wong and woŋ

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wɒŋ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɔŋ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /wɑŋ/

Etymology 1

From Middle English wong, wang, from Old English wong, wang (“a flat surface, plain”), from Proto-West Germanic *wang, from Proto-Germanic *wangaz. Cognate with Danish vang.

Noun

wong (plural wongs)

1. (obsolete or dialectal, chiefly in placenames) A field or other piece of land.

Etymology 2

From the pen name Stanford Wong.

Verb

wong (third-person singular simple present wongs, present participle wonging, simple past and past participle wonged)

1. (gambling) To enter a betting game, particularly blackjack, when the odds are favorable.

Derived terms

• wongable

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

wong (plural wongs)

1. In the game of pai gow, a hand in which the double-one or double-six domino is used with a nine, making the hand worth eleven points rather than the usual one.

Etymology 4

Related to wang.

Noun

wong (plural wongs)

1. (slang) The penis.
   • 1957, Guy Bolton, Child of Fortune: A Play in Three Acts. Adoped from "Wings of the Dove", Norman Spinrad, page 177:

     "Is it not enough that you have gifted Alia Haste Moguchi with a phallus and renamed her Faust? And proceeded to outfit him or her or it with the Goddess of Swine as consort? Vraiment, and styled the arcane spirit of We Who Have Gone Before as a slavering goat-creature with an enormous throbbing wong? Now would you have these good folk believe that the Jump Drive which propels our Void Ships from star to star consists of a goat copulating with the queen of the pig people?

   • 2013, The Milagro Beanfield War: A Novel, John Nichols, page 243:

     In fact, just last year Shorty had somehow gotten his penis caught in a bracelet, Sabrina had rolled away, he'd screamed, his wong had practically been severed in two, and, in fact, a vein had been crushed, some permanent damage done.

References

• Jonathon Green (2005), Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, page 1543:

  wong n.1 (also Mr Wong) [1940s+] (US) the penis. [ var. on WANG n.2 (1)]
  wong n.2 [1990s+] (UK Black) money. [abbr. WONGA n.]

• Stephen Glazier (1997), Random House Word Menu, page 582: “wong Vulgar slang, penis”

Anagrams

• gown

Balinese

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Javanese woṅ, wwaṅ/wwang (“human being, man; attendant”), from Western Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *uʀaŋ. Cognate of Indonesian orang, and Javanese ꦮꦺꦴꦁ (wong).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈwɔŋ]
• Hyphenation: wong

Noun

wong (Balinese script ᬯᭀᬂ)

1. people

Derived terms

• pawongan

Further reading

• “wong”, in Balinese–Indonesian Dictionary [Kamus Bahasa Bali–Indonesia] (in Balinese), Denpasar, Indonesia: The Linguistic Center of Bali Province [Balai Bahasa Provinsi Bali]

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from Javanese ꦮꦺꦴꦁ (wong, “human, person”), from Old Javanese woṅ, wwaṅ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *uʁaŋ. Doublet of orang and bong.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈwoŋ/ [ˈwoŋ]
• Rhymes: -oŋ
• Syllabification: wong

Noun

wong (plural wong-wong)

1. (colloquial, chiefly Java) synonym of orang (“person”)

Derived terms

• wong agung
• wong cilik

Related terms

• pawongan

Further reading

• “wong”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Javanese

Romanization

wong

1. romanization of ꦮꦺꦴꦁ

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wonɡ/, [woŋɡ]

Noun

wong m (nominative plural wongas)

1. alternative spelling of wang