Tong / Tonge / Tongue Dictionary Definition

Tonge

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Dictionary Definition, Flavia & Hodges : From A Dictionary of Surnames, Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-211592-8

Tong English: 1. metonymic occupational name for a maker or a user of tongs (OE tang(e)).

2. habitation name from any of the various places, for example in Lancs., Shrops., and W Yorks., called Tong from their situation by a fork in a road or river.

3. nickname for a chatterbox or a scold or for someone with a deformity of the tongue, ME, OE tunge.

4. topographical name from someone who lived on a tongue of land, or habitation name from a place named with this word, for example Tonge in Leics.

Vars.: Tong(u)e, Tongs.

Cogns. (of 1): Flem., Du.: Tang. Dan., Norw.: Tange (Of 3): Jewish (Ashkenazic): Tzung, Cung (from Yid. tsung tongue); Tzinger (from the Yid. pl. tsinger); Zingel (from the Yid. dim. tsingl, but see also Zingler).