gang

英文词源

gang

gang: [12] Gang originally meant ‘going, journey’. It was borrowed from Old Norse gangr, which goes back ultimately to the same Germanic source (the verb *ganggan ‘go’) as produced the German past participle gegangen ‘gone’ and Old English gangan ‘go’ – still preserved in Scottish gang ‘go’ and in gangway [17]. Originally literally a ‘way for going’.

The word’s modern meaning seems to have developed via ‘quantity carried on a journey’ (a common usage in Scottish English well into the 19th century) and ‘set of articles carried together’ to (in the 17th century) ‘group of workmen’ and ‘group of people acting together for a (bad) purpose’.

gang (v.)

1856, from gang (n.). Related: Ganged; ganging. To gang up (on) is first attested 1919.

gang (n.)

from Old English gang "a going, journey, way, passage," and Old Norse gangr "a group of men, a set," both from Proto-Germanic *gangaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Danish, Dutch, Old High German, German gang, Old Norse gangr, Gothic gagg "act of going"), from PIE root *ghengh- "to step" (cognates: Sanskrit jangha "shank," Avestan zanga- "ankle," Lithuanian zengiu "I stride"). Thus not considered to be related to go.

The sense evolution is probably via meaning "a set of articles that usually are taken together in going" (mid-14c.), especially a set of tools used on the same job. By 1620s this had been extended in nautical speech to mean "a company of workmen," and by 1630s the word was being used, with disapproving overtones, for "any band of persons traveling together," then "a criminal gang or company" (gang of thieves, gang of roughs, etc.). By 1855 gang was being used in the sense "group of criminal or mischievous boys in a city." In American English, especially of slaves working on plantations (1724). Also formerly used of animal herds or flocks (17c.-19c.). Gangway preserves the original sense of the word, as does gangplank.