Tracking the Fangle in Newfangled

Tracking the Fangle in Newfangled Tracking the Fangle in Newfangled Tracking the Fangle in Newfangled By Maeve Maddox Until I saw the word fangled used humorously in a couple of blogs, Id never given any thought to the elements of newfangled. Can something be oldfangled, or just plain fangled? Come to find out, the fangled part of newfangled is a fossil from Old English. For those of you unfamiliar with the word, the meaning usually understood by newfangled is Newly or recently invented or existent, novel; gratuitously or objectionably modern or different from what one is used to. OED Ex. My grandmother refuses to use anything so newfangled as a cell phone. The word newfangled, with the sense of addicted to novelty/ready to grasp at new things, is first recorded about 1470. The sense lately come into fashion occurs in 1533. The Old English verb fon (to capture, seize, take) had the past participle form gefangen. Not only does this old verb give us the fangle in newfangled, it gives us the word fang. with the sense of sharp tooth. Makes sense: something with fangs can seize with them. NOTE: Another O.E. word, fengto, meant a catching- or grasping-tooth. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Based in" and "based out of"36 Poetry TermsDozen: Singular or Plural?