English
verge
Verge comes from Middle French verge ‘rod or wand of office’, and goes back to Latin virga.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvirga‘shoot, rod stick’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400verge
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600verge‘rod or wand of office’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1593verge
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvirga‘shoot, rod stick’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400verge
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600verge‘rod or wand of office’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1593verge
Earliest quotation: c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]: “The inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round…”
The story
Borrowed from Middle French verge (‘rod or wand of office’), hence "scope, territory dominated", from Latin virga (‘shoot, rod stick’), of unknown origin.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Earliest attested sense in English is now-obsolete meaning "male member, penis" (c.1400). Modern sense is from the notion of 'within the verge' (1509, also as Anglo-Norman dedeinz la verge). "subject to the Lord High Steward's authority" (as symbolized by the rod of office), originally a 12-mile radius round the royal court, which sense shifted to "the outermost edge of an expanse or area."
Linked words
through Latin virga ‘shoot, rod stick’
Another origin of verge
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wer-‘to turn, bend’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*werg-‘to turn’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvergō‘to bend, turn, tend toward, incline’
- Englishtodayverge
Borrowed from Latin vergō (‘to bend, turn, tend toward, incline’), from Proto-Indo-European *werg- (‘to turn’), from a root *wer- (‘to turn, bend’) (compare versus); strongly influenced by the above noun.
Today it means
noun A rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin virga / verge