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Origin and history of clung

clung

Old English clungen, past tense and past participle of cling.

Entries linking to clung

cling(v.)

Old English clingan "hold fast, adhere closely; congeal, shrivel" (strong verb, past tense clang, past participle clungen), from Proto-Germanic *klingg- (source also of Danish klynge "to cluster;" Old High German klinga "narrow gorge;" Old Norse klengjask "press onward;" Danish klinke, Dutch klinken "to clench;" German Klinke "latch").

The main sense shifted in Middle English to "adhere to" (something else), "stick together." Of persons in embrace, c. 1600. Figuratively (to hopes, outmoded ideas, etc.), from 1580s. Of clothes from 1792. Related: Clung; clinging.

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    Trends of clung

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    empathetic
    And a little of the pathos of pathetic has usually clung to sympathetic....
    again
    . in southern writers, again becoming an adverb only, and against taking over as preposition and conjunction, but again clung...
    coat-tail
    Yes, sir, that coat-tail was used not only for General Jackson himself, but has been clung to, with the grip of death, by...
    touch
    late 13c., "make deliberate physical contact with," from Old French tochier "to touch, hit, knock; mention, deal with" (11c., Modern French toucher), from Vulgar Latin *toccare "to knock, strike" as a bell (source also of Spanish tocar, Italian toccare), perhaps of imitative orig
    couth
    Middle English couth "known, well-known; usual, customary," from Old English cuðe "known," past participle of cunnan "to know," less commonly "to have power to, to be able" (see can (v.1)). As a past participle it died out 16c. with the emergence of could, but the old word was re
    adjoin
    c. 1300, "unite (something to something else), ally" (a sense now obsolete); late 14c. as "be contiguous with, be adjacent to," from Old French ajoin- stem of ajoindre "join together, unite," from Latin adiungere "fasten on, harness, join to," from ad "to" (see ad-) + iungere "to
    agglutinate
    1580s, "unite or cause to adhere," from Latin agglutinatus, past participle of agglutinare "fasten with glue," from ad "to" (see ad-) + glutinare "to glue," from gluten "glue" (from PIE *glei-; see glue (n.)). Related: Agglutinated; agglutinating. Perhaps suggested by the earlier
    attach
    mid-14c. (mid-13c. in Anglo-Latin), "to take or seize (property or goods) by law," a legal term, from Old French atachier "fasten; arrest" (11c.), earlier estachier "to attach, fix; stake up, support" (Modern French attacher, also compare Italian attaccare), from a- "to" (see ad-
    conglutinate
    early 15c., "to fasten together," also, of a broken bone or wound, "to heal, close up," from Latin conglutinatus, past participle of conglutinare, from assimilated form of com "together" (see con-) + glutinare "to glue," from gluten "glue," from PIE *glei- "clay," also forming wo
    stick
    "piece of wood, generally rather long and slender," Middle English stikke, from Old English sticca "twig or slender branch from a tree or shrub," also "rod, peg, spoon," from Proto-Germanic *stikkon- "pierce, prick" (source also of Old Norse stik, Middle Dutch stecke, stec, Old H

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    Dictionary entries near clung
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