tong

Etymology 1

From Middle English tonge (“tongs, fang”), tange, from Old English tange, from Proto-West Germanic *tangu, from Proto-Germanic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognate with Old Norse tǫng (modern Icelandic töng), Old High German zanga (modern German Zange). Other cognates include Sanskrit दशति (dáśati, “to bite”) and Albanian dang (“bite, nip”).

noun

1. (mostly plural) An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands.
   […] these attributes are concrete expressions of God's care and providence and therefore not man-made. This explains the quite bizarre presence of a ‘pair’ of tongs in some lists: in order to make a tong one needs a tong, and how could the first tong be made without a tong? 1998, Alberdina Houtman, Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz, editors, Sanctity of time and space in tradition and modernity, page 232

verb

1. (intransitive) To use tongs.
2. (transitive) To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs.

Etymology 2

From Cantonese 堂 (tong⁴).

noun

1. a Chinese lineage organization responsible for managing ancestral land
   An Ordinance to provide for the termination of the Block Crown Lease of Cheung Chau granted to Wong Wai Tsak Tong and for sub-lessees under the Block Crown Lease to hold directly from the Crown. 1995, Legislative Council of Hong Kong, “Block Crown Lease (Cheung Chau) Ordinance”, in Hong Kong Government Gazette, page A2772
2. a Chinese secret society or gang

Etymology 3

noun

1. Obsolete spelling of tongue
   Or plaine and perfite way of teachyng children, to vnderstand, write, and speake, the Latin tong, but specially purposed for the priuate brynging vp of youth in Ientlemen and Noble mens houses, and commodious also for all such, as haue forgot the Latin tonge, and would, by themselues, without a Scholemaster, in short tyme, and with small paines, recouer a sufficient habilitie, to vnderstand, write, and speake Latin. 1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster