English

wrong

/ˈɹɒŋ/
Incorrect or untrue.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    From Middle English wrong, from Old English wrang (“wrong, twisted, uneven”), from Old Norse rangr, vrangr (“crooked, wrong”), from Proto-Germanic *wrangaz (“crooked, twisted, turned awry”), from Proto-Indo-European *werḱ-, *wrengʰ- (“to twist, weave, tie together”), from *wer- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots wrang (“wrong”), Danish vrang (“wrong, crooked”), Swedish vrång (“perverse, distorted”), Icelandic rangur (“wrong”), Norwegian Nynorsk rang (“wrong”), Dutch wrang (“bitter, sour”) and the first element in the mythic Old Frisian city of Rungholt (“crooked wood”). More at wring.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishwrong
      • inheritedOld Englishwrang
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*wrang
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*wrangaz
            • partProto-Germanic*wringaną “to squeeze, twist, wring”
              • derivedProto-Indo-European*wrengʰ-//*wrengʷʰ
            • partProto-Germanic*-az
              • inheritedProto-Indo-European*-ós
                • partProto-Indo-European*-os
      • derivedOld Norserangr

    Related: Scots wrang, Danish vrang, Swedish vrång, Icelandic rangur, Norwegian Nynorsk rang, Dutch wrang

    Sources