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vang

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Vang¹

Where it comes from

* As a North Germanic surname, from derivatives of Old Norse vangr (“field”) (such as modern Swedish vång).

* As a Jewish surname, spelling variant of Wang.

* As a Hmongic surname, from White Hmong Vaj, White Hmong Vaaj, or Khmer វ៉ាង (vaang).

proper noun Vangs

  1. A surname from the North Germanic languages
  2. A surname from Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish
  3. A surname from White Hmong
  4. A surname from Hmong
  5. A surname from Hmong

vang²

Where it comes from

From Middle English vangen, southern variant of fangen (“to seize, catch”), from Old English fōn (“to take, grasp, seize, catch, capture, make prisoner, receive, accept, assume, undertake, meet with, encounter”), and Old Norse fanga (“to fetch, capture”), both from Proto-Germanic *fanhaną, *fangōną (“to catch, capture”), from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”).

Cognate with West Frisian fange (“to catch”), Dutch vangen (“to catch”), German fangen (“to catch”), Danish fange (“to catch”). More at fang.

verb vangs · vanging · vanged · fank · fang

  1. dialectal, obsolete To take; undertake for.
  2. dialectal, as a godparent To undertake for at the baptismal font; be godfather or godmother to.

vang³

Where it comes from

From Dutch vang, from vangen (“to catch”), under influence of earlier English fang. Ultimately a doublet of Etymology 1 above.

noun vangs · fank · fang

  1. A line extended down from the end of a gaff to regulate its position. Having the vang and the Cunningham in the right spot can be beneficial.

    Similar: fang

verb vangs · vanging · vanged · fank · fang

  1. To flatten the sail and regulate its position with such a line. On a catamaran, the curved track has enough beam to allow the mainsheet to vang the boom throughout its entire arc.

Translations

Every language

noun line down from the end of a gaff

עבריתגִּיד gid

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MLA

"vang." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/vang. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

vang. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/vang

Chicago

"vang." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/vang.

BibTeX
@misc{vang_2026,
  title = {vang},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/vang},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}