peg
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɛɡ/
ipa: [pʰɛɡ]
homophone: Peg
rhymes: -ɛɡ
Forms: form: pegs
Etymology: From Middle English pegge, from Middle Dutch pegge (“pin, peg”), from Old Dutch *pigg-, *pegg-, from Proto-Germanic *pig-, *pag- (“peg, stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-, *baḱ- (“club, pointed stick, peg”). Cognate with Dutch dialectal peg (“pin”), Low German pig, pigge (“peg, stick with a point”), Low German pegel (“post, stake”), Swedish pigg (“tooth, spike”), Danish pig (“spike”), Norwegian Bokmål pigg (“spike”), Irish bac (“stick, crook”), Latin baculum (“staff”), Latvian bakstît (“to poke”), Ancient Greek βάκτρον (báktron, “staff, walking stick”). Related to beak.
This is one of the very few English words that begin with a p and come from Proto-Germanic. Proto-Germanic *p, when not in a consonant cluster beginning with *s, developed by Grimm's law from the Proto-Indo-European consonant *b, which was very rare.
(To indicate or ascribe an attribute to): Assumed to originate from the use of pegs or pins as markers on a bulletin board or a list.
Senses: glosses: A cylindrical wooden or metal object used to fasten or as a bearing between objects.
examples: text: Hang your coat on the peg and come in.
glosses: A protrusion used to hang things on.
examples: text: a peg to hang a claim upon
glosses: A support; a reason; a pretext.
qualifier: cribbage
glosses: A peg moved on a crib board to keep score.
examples: text: The following became obvious quite quickly – the cryptosphere needed a nonvolatile peg.
ref: 2022, Simon Dingle, Steven Boykey Sidley, chapter 7, in Beyond Bitcoin, Icon Books, →ISBN:
topics: business
finance
glosses: A fixed exchange rate, where a currency's value is matched to the value of another currency or measure such as gold.
examples: text: This over, the club will be visited for a "peg," Anglice drink.
ref: 1898, unknown author, Harper's Magazine:
text: The name had come to mean any aromatic essence of herbs by the time the first thirsty colonial poured a peg of Who-shot-John into his mint water.
ref: 1953, S. S. Field, The American drink book, page 65:
synonyms: shot
glosses: A small quantity of a strong alcoholic beverage.
glosses: A place formally allotted for fishing
examples: text: "Now I'm cleaned up for thee: tha's no 'casions ter stir a peg all day, but sit and read thy books."
ref: 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 2, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
glosses: A leg or foot.
examples: text: O, you are well tuned now! / But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, / As honest as I am.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: Did we form ourselves, choosing, and our powers? I find myself, for one, as a stringed instrument with chords and stops - but I have no power to turn the pegs, or pitch my thoughts to a higher or lower key.
ref: 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter IV, in The Last Man. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
glosses: One of the pins of a musical instrument, on which the strings are strained.
examples: text: to screw papal authority to the highest peg
ref: a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). A Treatise on the Pope's Supremacy”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC:
text: We still have worsted all your holy tricks; / Trepann'd your party with intrigue, / And took your grandees down a peg[…]
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
glosses: A step; a degree.
glosses: Ellipsis of clothes peg.
examples: text: […] all news media keep a supply of features on hand, waiting for a peg to make them topical.
ref: 2004, Herbert J. Gans, Deciding What's News:
text: Journalists and prospective sources wishing to attract their attention are constantly on the lookout for pegs. The process by which a peg is identified is informed by news values.
ref: 2010, Barbie Zelizer, Stuart Allan, Keywords in News and Journalism Studies, page 111:
topics: journalism
media
glosses: A topic of interest, such as an ongoing event or an anniversary, around which various features can be developed.
examples: text: Lindy hit the pegs with five deliveries out of six.
ref: 1961, Colin McCool, Cricket is a Game, page 123:
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A stump.
examples: text: Get your strap-on out and give me a nice peg!
glosses: The penetration during anal sex using a strap-on dildo.
examples: text: I then ordered a "peg" (brandy-and-soda) to be brought to my tent, and returned to have a smoke before turning in again.
ref: 1894, Arthur Travers Crawford, Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official, page 183:
glosses: A serving of brandy and soda.
examples: text: This is the sort of drinking that Anna Hazare fought to eradicate from Ralegan Siddhi, as Colonel Phatak explained, after I joked about an army man needing his evening peg of whisky before dinner.
ref: 2008 September 2, Daniel Lak, India Express: The Future of the New Superpower, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN:
glosses: A serving of any hard spirit, particularly whisky.
examples: text: The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.
ref: 1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90:
glosses: A shilling.
examples: text: To remember this list of early psychologists, you recall each peg along with its image of an early psychologist that you placed there.
ref: 2013, Rod Plotnik, Haig Kouyoumdjian, Introduction to Psychology:
text: Multiple items can be stored at each location or with each peg.
ref: 2023, W. Scott Terry, Learning and Memory: Basic Principles, Processes, and Procedures, page 168:
topics: human-sciences
psychology
sciences
glosses: An easily recalled image that a person mentally visualizes with something else, in order to remember that other thing. See mnemonic peg system.
Derived terms: between the pegs
bring down a peg
clothes peg
clothespeg
cobbler's pegs
crawling peg
footpeg
gim-peg
hatpeg
knock down a peg
move down a peg
mumblety peg
nose peg
pail
peg-and-socket joint
pegboard
pegbox
peg boy
peg dope
peg-fiched
peg float
peghead
peg house
peg in the ring
peg ladder
peg-leg
pegless
peglet
peglike
pegroots
peg-strip
peg tankard
pegtop
peg-tops
peg warmer
pull someone down a peg
puzzle-peg
screw peg
shoepeg
square peg in a round hole
take down a peg
tent peg
tuning peg
turtle peg