Other forms: tangs
A tang is a strong sharp taste or smell. A salty tang, the tang of the sea, a tang of lemon.
It is sharp rather than strong: a tang cuts through, which is why lemon, vinegar and sea air all have one. There is a separate and quite technical sense: the tang of a knife is the part of the blade extending into the handle, and a full tang runs its whole length, which is what makes a knife strong. Note tangy, which is used mostly of food and always approvingly.
1nountangA strong sharp taste or smell.
“I love the sharp tang of fresh lemon in this sauce.”
2nounbladeThe part of a blade that runs into the handle.
“A good kitchen knife has a tang that runs right through the handle.”
tang is a sharpness of taste or a blade part.
Old Norse tangi meant a point or a spike — the knife sense is the original. The taste sense came from the idea of a sharp point, so a tang of lemon is a small spike of flavour.
Old Norse
tangi — pointed metal tool
Middle English
tange
English, today
tang
Built from
From Middle English tange, variant of tonge (“tongs, fang”), from Old Norse tangi (“pointed metal tool”), perhaps related to Old Norse tunga (“tongue”). But see also Middle Dutch tanger (“sharp, tart, pinching”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA