Ring — From Old English to English | etymologist.ai
ring
/ɹɪŋ/·noun·before 900 CE·Established
Origin
'Ring' meant any circle before it meant jewelry — theboxing ring and rink preserve the older sense.
Definition
A small circular band, typically of precious metal, worn on a finger as an ornament or a token of marriage, engagement, or authority.
The Full Story
Old Englishbefore 900 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish hring (ring, circle, circular group), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (ring, circle), from PIE *kreng- or *(s)kreng- (to turn, bend, curve). The PIE root produced a tight family of circular concepts: Old Norse hringr (ring), Old High German hring, Gothic hrings, and possibly Latin circus (circle) and Greek krikos (ring) through parallel formations from the same root area. The initial h- in Proto-Germanic *hringaz was lost in most later Germanic languages
Did you know?
Theword 'rink' (as in an ice rink or skating rink) is a Scottish English variant of 'ring' — both from Old English 'hring.' A rink was originally a circular areamarked out for a game or contest. The boxing 'ring,' the circus 'ring,' and the 'ring' of a telephone (from the circular motion of a
the name), a ring of conspirators (circular arrangement of people), to ring a city (encircle it), a ring road (circular route), and the telephone ring (a separate word entirely, from Old English hringan meaning "to sound, clash," possibly onomatopoeic but often conflated with the circular ring). The jewellery sense and the enclosure sense have been primary since Proto-Germanic times. Key roots: *hringaz (Proto-Germanic: "ring, circle").