verge

• (UK) IPA^(key): /vɜːd͡ʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /vɝd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒ

Borrowed from Middle French verge (“rod or wand of office”), hence "scope, territory dominated", from Latin virga (“shoot, rod stick”), of unknown origin. Earliest attested sense in English is now-obsolete meaning "male member, penis" (c.1400). Modern sense is from the notion of 'within the verge' (1509, also as Anglo-Norman dedeinz la verge), i.e. "subject to the Lord High Steward's authority" (as symbolized by the rod of office), originally a 12-mile radius round the royal court, which sense shifted to "the outermost edge of an expanse or area."

verge (plural verges)

1. A rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger.
   1. (Britain, historical) The stick or wand with which persons were formerly admitted tenants, by holding it in the hand and swearing fealty to the lord. Such tenants were called tenants by the verge.
2. An edge or border.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Even though we go to the extreme verge of possibility to invent a supposition favourable to it, the theory […] implies an absurdity.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Matthew Arnold

     But on the horizon's verge descried, / Hangs, touched with light, one snowy sail.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175, page 048:

     It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.

   1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) The grassy area between the sidewalk and the street; a tree lawn.
   2. (figuratively) An extreme limit beyond which something specific will happen.

      I was on the verge of tears.

3. (obsolete) The phallus.
   1. (zoology) The external male organ of certain mollusks, worms, etc.
4. An old measure of land: a virgate or yardland.
5. A circumference; a circle; a ring.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     The inclusive verge / Of golden metal that must round my brow.

6. (architecture) The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Oxf. Gloss. to this entry?)

7. (architecture) The edge of the tiling projecting over the gable of a roof.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Encyc. Brit to this entry?)

8. (horology) The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement.

• (strip of land between street and sidewalk): see list at tree lawn

Borrowed from Latin vergō (“to bend, turn, tend toward, incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *werg- (“to turn”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”) (compare versus); strongly influenced by the above noun.

verge (third-person singular simple present verges, present participle verging, simple past and past participle verged)

1. (intransitive) To be or come very close; to border; to approach.

   Eating blowfish verges on insanity.

2. To bend or incline; to tend downward; to slope.

• “verge” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
• verge at OneLook Dictionary Search

From Old Occitan, from Latin virgō, virginem.

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛɾ.ʒə/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛr.ʒə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛɾ.d͡ʒe/

verge (masculine and feminine plural verges or vèrgens)

1. virgin

verge m or f (plural verges or vèrgens)

1. virgin

verge

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of vergen

From Middle French verge (“rod or wand of office”), hence "scope, territory dominated", from Old French verge, virge, from Latin virga (“shoot, rod stick”), of uncertain origin, but probably from a Proto-Indo-European *wisgeh₂ (“flexible rod or stick”). Doublet of vergue.

• IPA^(key): /vɛʁʒ/

• Audio

  (file)

verge f (plural verges)

1. rod
2. penis (male sexual organ)
3. (Canadian Football) yard

• “verge” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• grève

• verze

From Vulgar Latin *virdia (a root), from syncopation of Latin viridia, neuter plural of viridis (“green”). Compare Aromanian verdzu, Dalmatian viarz, Italian verza, Portuguese verça, Romanian varză, Spanish berza.

verge f (plural vergis)

1. cabbage

• vert

verge

1. second-person singular present active imperative of vergō

From Old French verge, virge, from Latin virga.

verge f (plural verges)

1. rod; stick; staff
   • Exodus, the Bible

     Moyse ietta en la terre la verge qu'il tenoit dans sa main […] elle fust soudain changé en serpent

     Moses throw on the ground the staff that he held in is hand […] suddenly, it changes into a serpent

• English: verge
• French: verge

From Old French verge, vierge, virge, from virgene, from Latin virginem, accusative of virgō.

verge f (plural verges)

1. female virgin (female person who has never had sexual intercourse)

• French: vierge

From a shortening of earlier forms virgine, virgene, from Latin virginem, accusative singular of virgō, possibly a borrowing.

• vierche
• vierge
• virge

verge f (oblique plural verges, nominative singular verge, nominative plural verges)

1. virgin (one who has never had sex)

verge m (oblique and nominative feminine singular verge)

1. virgin; virginal

• Often capitalized as la Verge when referring to the Virgin Mary

• Middle French: verge
  • French: vierge

From Latin virga.

• virge

verge f (oblique plural verges, nominative singular verge, nominative plural verges)

1. rod; stick; staff

• Middle French: verge
  • French: verge