Thonge, thong, fhong, fong????

I have an English background and I always heard this word. I also heard it used in the movie "A Knight's Tale". The red headed man says it when he threatens Chaucer. Basicly he says something along the lines of, you better listen to us or I'll beat you up (fong???)

It's been a while since I've heard it. I've never seen it spelled. Also, with my Grandad's accent, I now realize....did I hear him right?

Anyone have any idea what I am talking about?

I have an English background too. Well, as English as Singapore can give me. :p

I think the word you are looking for is "Throng". I too, often came across this word, mostly when reading fiction when I was very young (before 12 years old). I don't think I've met a person who used this verb. You say your grandfather used it? Who did he threaten to throng?

I copied this off the OED.

throng, v.
1. trans. To press or compress violently; to squeeze, crush. Obs.

2. intr. To push or force one's way, as through a crowd or against obstacles; to press. Obs.

3. a. intr. To assemble in a group or crowd; to collect in large numbers; to crowd; also, to go in a crowd.

b. indirect pass. (cf. 4). Obs.

4. trans. To crowd round and press upon; to press upon as in a crowd, to jostle. Also fig.

5. To bring or drive into a crowd, or into one place; to collect closely, to crowd; to press or drive in a crowd (quot. 1615). Chiefly in pa. pple.

6. a. To fill or occupy (a place, etc.) with a large number of things or persons, or quantity of something; to crowd, cram, stuff; to burden (quot. 1648).

b. Said of a multitude of persons or things: To occupy completely, fill, crowd (a place, etc.).

c. pa. pple. Occupied by a crowd or multitude of persons or things; crowded, crammed, filled (const. with, or absol.). See also THRONGED 2.

d. intr. for pass. Now dial.

Definition 1 is probably the one you are looking for. "trans." stands for "transitive", whatever that means. "Obs." stands for "obsolete"

Hope this helps.


metwin1

Just hijacking this thread for another verb enquiry.

Have you guys heard of another meaning of the verb " mug"? Besides robbing somebody, of course. Now that I'm in Toronto I get the strangest looks whenever I say that "I'm going home to mug" or "I have loads of mugging to do for my exams and I'm running out of time".

I don't think it's something Singaporean. It sounds too... erm... English. The OED describes this particular meaning to be a slang for "cram". Since my Toronto friends do not use "mug" this way at all, I'm assuming that it's UK slang? Or that this verb is also obsolete in UK as well, and we are still using it because of some archaic English remments of a colonial past?


metwin1

i've never heard that definition, and aparantly, neither has dictionary.com. a mug is a type of cup, a type of police photo, slang for a person's face, or to rob. that's about it. oh, and there's a listing that defintes it as slang for a chump or patsy.

i have heard "tooling" as slang for the sort of thing you're talking about. i think that's a local thing, though.

oh, and "transitive" is a type of verb. according to dictionary.com:

"Expressing an action carried from the subject to the object; requiring a direct object to complete meaning."

so, a verb is transitive if it involves something or someone being acted upon as well as someone doing the acting.

one last thing: obs. can also stand for "obscure."

Paul

Metwin1, I think it's obselete UK-English; it's the kind of usage you'd find in a 1920s book about boys at a public school (ie posh private school, in anyone else's parlance ). I have vaguely heard of the expression 'mugging up on a subject'. Certainly no-one uses it in that sense any more; and neither is 'cram' used in the sense of studying or revising for exams.


Wendy

It's been a bit of time since I watched A Knight's Tale, but I'm pretty sure that the word used there was thong. "I'll thong you!".

So you have two words, Roo. Throng and thong - which are both perfectly valid English words. Though thong is rarely used in the context above.

LabRat

Cram is obsolete? I don't think it is in the US I use it all the time. Like, "I have to do some hardcore cramming for the qualifier." I have never heard the word mugging (or tooling) used in that context.

Tool/tooling is an interesting word. I am not even exactly sure what it means. People about 1-3 years younger than I am tend to use it for just about everything. "He is such a tool," which I think means loser in that context, "I am just tooling around," which I think means I am wasting time.

Has anyone else heard the word tool in that fashion, or is that just a thing people say at Case? My students (who would be around 21-23) use it all the time, bur I've never heard it anywhere else.

- Laura

"He's such a tool." I've heard.

Tooling around. I never hear anymore except from my grandparents. I never use it.

I hear tool used a lot in a naughty way. I have used the word doorknob in place of tool b/c of the teasing that occurs when you use tool at my workplace. Also, I've heard the naughty way on the tellie.

I hear cram all the time. Very popular here.

Mug to me is a type of cup. Again, only heard in my family. Otherwise a mug is a mug shot for criminals.

My husband is convinced it is fonging (don't know about the spelling). He says they say it that way in the movies and in his household (British/Cdn-Italian) when he was growing up.

Who knows!!!

Thanks for the input guys!!!

Erm...yes. The use of the word tool in that context is somewhat risque.

LabRat

From IMDB.com: (By no means a definitive source, but someone must have listened to it closely...)

Checked dictionary.com and it doesn't have fong, but it does have this:
Kinda interesting that's attributed to Chaucer, huh?

Very interesting, Karen. I wonder if that's the root of the modern word thong we use today?

Chaucer, as the film noted, was a pretty racy guy for his time. <g>

LabRat

Neat!

Well I am really out of the loop LOL. I think a thong is either that skinny little underware that crawls up your butt, or an annoying sandle that hurts between your big toe and the next toe. Fong sounds like the middle of some Chinese food dish and throng, I thought that was a group of people! Tool is what we use to hammer or screw in something, unlike toole which is the frilly fluffy stuff underneath dresses<g> Cram, we still cram for tests here in the US but I have also heard of it refered to as a sort of dried food that lasts a long time for long journeys. I read that word in LOTR by Tolkien. Laura

Actually, the frilly stuff is spelled tulle, I think.

LOL Of course it is, who said I could spell? <g>

MUG is also used in the context of "mugging for the camera"..... that's all the people who make faces and/or make sure they are noticed when the camera points thier direction. Such as crowds at a sports event, or people in the background of filming. It is derived from the face definition of mug, I'm sure.

S (who just couldn't resist confusing the definitions more )