Etymology

flange

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Today it means: An external or internal rib or rim, used either to add strength or to hold something in place. Full definition →

Middle French flanche ← Old French flanche ← Frankish *hlanku
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The story

  1. Frankish · derived from*hlanku“bend, curve; side, flank”
  2. Old French · derived fromflanche“flank, side”
  3. Middle French · derived fromflanche
  4. English todayflange

From dialectal English flange (“to project”), flanch (“a projection”), from Middle French flanche, from Old French flanche (“flank, side”), from Frankish *hlanku (“bend, curve; side, flank”). See flank. As a term for a group of baboons, it was popularized in the comedy TV series Not the Nine O'Clock News.

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchflanche all →

flanch

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.