Other forms: pangs
A pang is a sudden sharp stab of pain or feeling. A pang of guilt, hunger pangs, a pang of regret.
It is used far more of feelings than of the body now, and the standard companions are guilt, regret, envy and hunger. What makes it a pang is the suddenness: it arrives, it is sharp, and it is over.
1nounpangA sudden sharp stab of pain or feeling.
“By noon I felt the first pangs of hunger and wished I'd eaten breakfast.”
pang is a pain.
The origin is uncertain; it may be an altered form of a Middle English word meaning a sharp pain or affliction.
Latin
pronga
Middle English
*pange
English, today
pang
Built from
The origin of the noun is; it is possibly derived from Middle English pange, perhaps an altered form of prange, prōnge (“affliction, agony, pain; pointed instrument”) as in prongys of deth (“pangs of death, death throes”), from Anglo-Latin pronga, of unknown origin. Perhaps connected with Middle Dutch prange, pranghe (“instrument for pinching”) (modern Dutch prang (“horse restraint; fetter, neck iron”)), Middle Low German prange (“pole, stake; (possibly) kind of pillory or stocks”), Old English pyngan (“to prick”). The word may thus be related to prong. The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA