Etymograph

English

gong

Gong comes from Malay gong.

  1. Malaymoderngong1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1869gong1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English gong
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: “All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs…”.

Earlier history not traced here. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. MalaymoderngongWiktionary, English gong
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1869gongWiktionary, English gong. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: “All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs…”

The story

Borrowed from Malay gong (possibly onomatopoeic).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Malay gong

Another origin of gong

  1. Mandarinmodern功gōng‘merit’
  2. Englishtodaygong

Today it means

noun A percussion instrument consisting of a metal disk that emits a loud resonant sound when struck with a soft hammer.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “gong”. 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 / Malay gong / gong

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