ging
A ‘shanghai’, or handheld catapult.
Noun Australia
- A ‘shanghai’, or handheld catapult.
- I put a stone in the ging and let fly. - 1965, Mudrooroo, Wild Cat Falling, HarperCollins, published 2001, page 13:
Origin
Perhaps onomatopoeic.
Forms
Noun obsolete
- A company; troop; a gang.
- There is a knot, a ging, a pack, a conspiracy againſt me. - c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio),...
- Proceeding further, I am met vvith a vvhole ging of vvords and phraſes not mine, for he hath maim'd them, and like a ſlye depraver mangl'd them in this his vvicked Limbo, vvorſe then the ghoſt of Deiphobus appear'd to...
Origin
From Middle English gyng, gynge, genge, from Old English genge (“a troop, privy, company, retinue”), from Old Norse gengi, from Proto-Germanic *gangiją (“pace, walk”). Cognate with Middle Low German gink (“a going, turn, way”), Old Norse gengi (“accompaniment, entourage, help”), Icelandic gengi (“rate”). Related to Old English gengan (“to go”), from Proto-Germanic *gangijaną (“to go”). More at gang.
Forms
Noun informal
- A redhead, a ginger-haired person
Origin
From ginger.