Meaning and Origin
What does the name Peg mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
User Submitted Origins
- A small, pointed piece of wood, used in fastening boards together, in attaching the soles of boots or shoes, etc.; as, a shoe peg .
- A wooden pin, or nail, on which to hang things, as coats, etc. Hence, colloquially and figuratively: A support; a reason; a pretext; as, a peg to hang a claim upon.
- One of the pins of a musical instrument, on which the strings are strained.
- One of the pins used for marking points on a cribbage board.
- A step; a degree; esp. in the slang phrase “To take one down a peg.”"To screw papal authority to the highest peg." [Barrow.]"And took your grandees down a peg." [Hudibras.]
- A drink of spirits, usually whisky or brandy diluted with soda water.(India)"This over, the club will be visited for a “ peg,” Anglice drink." [Harper's Mag.]
- [Baseball] a hard throw, especially one made to put out a baserunner; as, the peg to the plate went wild.
Etymology: OE. pegge; cf. Sw. pigg, Dan. pig a point, prickle, and E. peak
- To put pegs into; to fasten the parts of with pegs; as, to peg shoes; to confine with pegs; to restrict or limit closely."I will rend an oak And peg thee in his knotty entrails." [Shak.]
- [Cribbage] To score with a peg, as points in the game; as, she pegged twelwe points.(Colloq)
- To identify; to recognize; as, she pegged him as a good carpenter; he was pegged as a blowhard as soon as he started speaking; he was pegged as a exceptional player even in high school.
- [Baseball] To throw (a ball); as, he pegged the runner out at second.
- A wooden pin pushed or driven into a surface
- A holder attached to the gunwale of a boat that holds the oar in place and acts as a fulcrum for rowing
- Regulator that can be turned to regulate the pitch of the strings of a stringed instrument
- A prosthesis that replaces a missing leg
- Informal terms for the leg
- Small markers inserted into a surface to mark scores or define locations etc.
- Stabilize (the price of a commodity or an exchange rate) by legislation or market operations ("The weak currency was pegged to the US Dollar")
- Fasten or secure with a wooden pin ("peg a tent")
- Pierce with a wooden pin or knock or thrust a wooden pin into
- Succeed in obtaining a position
From Middle English pegge, from Middle Dutch pegge (“pin, peg”), from Old Saxon *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”), 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 words in English inherited directly from Proto-Indo-European to begin with a p due to the extreme rarity of *b in Proto-Indo-European, which became *p in Proto-Germanic as described by Grimm's law.
- A cylindrical wooden or metal object used to fasten or as a bearing between objects.
- Measurement between the pegs: after killing an animal hunters used the distance between a peg near the animal's nose and one near the end of its body to measure its body length.
- A protrusion used to hang things on.
- Hang your coat on the and come in.
- (figuratively) A support; a reason; a pretext.
- a to hang a claim upon
- (cribbage) A peg moved on a crib board to keep score.
- (finance) A fixed exchange rate, where a currency's value is matched to the value of another currency or measure such as gold
- (Britain) A small quantity of a strong alcoholic beverage.
- A place formally allotted for fishing
- (colloquial, dated) A leg or foot.
- One of the pins of a musical instrument, on which the strings are strained.
- A step; a degree.
- Short for clothes peg.
peg was also found in the following language(s): Danish and Middle English