tongsyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[tongs 词源字典]
tongs: [OE] The etymological notion underlying the word tongs is of ‘biting’. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *tanguz (source also of German zange, Dutch and Danish tang, and Swedish tång), which went back ultimately to the Indo-European base *dank- ‘bite’ (ancestor of Greek dáknein ‘bite’). (Tong ‘Chinese secret society’ [19], incidentally, comes from Cantonese tong ‘assembly hall’.)
[tongs etymology, tongs origin, 英语词源]
tongs (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English tange, tang "tongs, pincers, foreceps, instrument for holding and lifting," from Proto-Germanic *tango (cognates: Old Saxon tanga, Old Norse töng, Swedish tång, Old Frisian tange, Middle Dutch tanghe, Dutch tang, Old High German zanga, German Zange "tongs"), literally "that which bites," from PIE root *denk- "to bite" (cognates: Sanskrit dasati "biter;" Greek daknein "to bite," dax "biting"). For sense evolution, compare French mordache "tongs," from mordre "to bite."