eng

adj, noun — 3 senses

eng

adj

US /ɛŋ/

Etymology Probably from Dutch eng (“narrow”), also compare Old English enge (“narrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *angī, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *anguz. No mention of the word is found in any surviving Middle English text, save for the Middle English compound word ang-nail. Related to Dutch eng (“narrow”), German eng (“narrow”), Low German enj (“confined, narrow”), Luxembourgish enk (“narrow”).

1

Obsolete, Regional Narrow.

  • The hole was too eng for him to get through.

eng

noun

Etymology Probably created by analogy with other names for nasal consonants em (m) and en (n).

1

The name of the Latin script letter Ŋ/ŋ, formed by combining the letters n and g, used in the IPA, Sami, Mende, and some Australian aboriginal languages.

2

The velar nasal consonant found in such words as song or wink.

Derived terms
feng, heng

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.