thong

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a narrow strip of leather or another flexible material, especially one used as a fastening

   She tied the rolled blanket with a leather thong.

2. 2
   noun

   a very brief undergarment or swimsuit with a narrow strip at the back

   The costume included a jeweled thong beneath a long cape.

3. 3
   noun

   the flexible leather lash of a whip

   The thong of the whip cracked sharply above the horses.

4. 4
   noun

   in Australian English, a backless sandal held by a strap between the toes

   He wore thongs to the beach despite the hot sand.

Simplified etymology

Thong is an Old English word related to twinge, which originally meant “to pinch.” In Anglo-Saxon use a thong was a shoelace; the meaning broadened to any narrow leather strip and then any thin strip of material, producing the underwear sense in the 1970s and, from the 1960s in Australia and the United States, the sense “flip-flop sandal.”

From Middle English thong, thwong, and thwang, from Old English thwong or thwang ('strap, cord, strip of leather'), ultimately from a Germanic word associated with constraint or pressing. The underwear and sandal senses developed from the narrow strap central to their construction.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary