Verge

How to spell verge

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce verge

What does verge mean?

1. nounThe edge, border, or point at which something begins or ends.
2. verbTo come close to or border on a particular state or quality.
3. nounA strip of grass or land beside a road or path.

Verge in a sentence

• noun

  After months of losses the company was on the verge of collapse.

• verb

  His comments seemed to verge on outright rudeness.

• noun

  The broken-down car was parked on the grass verge beside the motorway.

• noun

  The negotiations brought both sides to the verge of an agreement.

• verb

  The temperature began to verge toward freezing by midnight.

• noun

  Wildflowers grew thickly along the verge of the country lane.

Where does verge come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin virga, which literally meant a slender rod, twig, or wand. In medieval use a rod was a symbol of office and authority, so virga came to mark the limit of a jurisdiction or the boundary that a staff-bearing official policed. English borrowed it through Old French verge in the 1400s, at first naming a rod or staff itself, and especially the ceremonial rod carried before a dignitary. From the idea of the rod marking a boundary, the sense slid to the more familiar modern meaning of an edge, border, or brink, and figuratively the point at which something is about to begin. The same root survives in 'verger', the official who once carried that rod in a cathedral, which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the -er-to-vowel run with a single, simple -ge ending.

How the word is built

• verg- (from Latin virga: rod, twig, hence a boundary marked by a rod)
• silent -e