Other forms: prongs
A prong is one of the points of a fork or a spear. The prongs of a fork, a bent prong, a three-pronged attack.
The number of them tells you what a fork is for: two for carving, four for eating, more for garden work. A three-pronged attack means an assault from three directions at once, and the metaphor is now used far more than the literal word.
1nounprongOne of the points of a fork or a spear.
“One prong of the fork was bent, so it was hard to pick up the peas.”
prong is a point.
Middle English pronge, probably from a Low German word meaning to pinch or press.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)preng- — to wrap up, constrict
Proto-Germanic
*pranganą — to press
Proto-West Germanic
*prangan
Old Saxon
*prangan
Middle Low German
prange — stick, restraining device
Middle English
pronge
English, today
prong
Built from
From Middle English pronge, perhaps from Middle Low German prange (“stick, restraining device”), from prangen (“to press, pinch”), from Old Saxon prangan, from Proto-West Germanic prangan, from Proto-Germanic pranganą (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)preng- (“to wrap up, constrict”). Akin to Lithuanian spriñgti (“to choke, become choked or obstructed”), Latvian sprañgât (“cord, constrict”), Ancient Greek σπαργανόω (“to swaddle”), σπάργανον (“swaddling cloth”). See also prank, prance, prink.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA