Etymograph

English

fling

Fling comes from Middle English flyngen ‘to dash, rush or charge’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *flangijaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flangijaną1reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350flengja1
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flyngen2as fling‘to dash, rush or charge’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1732fling2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Middle English flyngen
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English fling
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1732, Jonathan Swift: “I, who love to have a fling, / Both…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flangijanąWiktionary, Middle English flyngenreconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350flengjaWiktionary, Middle English flyngen
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flyngenWiktionary, English flingas fling‘to dash, rush or charge’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1732flingWiktionary, English fling. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1732, Jonathan Swift: “I, who love to have a fling, / Both…”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *flangijaną

Another origin of fling

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleh₂k-‘to beat’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flangijaną‘to beat, whip’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350flengja‘to whip’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flyngen‘to dash, rush or charge’
  5. Englishtodayfling

Today it means

noun An act of throwing, often violently.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “fling”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Middle English flyngen. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *flangijaną / fling

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