Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French renge: see range n.¹ Compare post-classical Latin rengus , masculine (from 12th cent. in British sources), rengia , feminine (from 13th cent. in British sources), both in sense ‘range, row, line’. Compare rang n., range n.¹, and also rank n.¹ Compare also later ringe n.¹The form reng in the following earlier quot. is ambiguous:c1225 (?c1200) Hali Meiðhad (Bodl.) (1940) 20 For ȝef ha þus beoþ acwiket..ha beoð i widewene reng. This quot. could show an earlier instance of the headword if its final g is intended to represent an affricate (which seems most likely, given the usual scribal practice in the source cited in the quot.); compare e.g. Anglo-Norman chaleng challenge n. If, on the other hand, the final g represented a plosive (a possibility which cannot be excluded on principle), the form could either show a borrowing of Anglo-Norman reng , variant of renc rank n.¹ (and hence an antedating of rank n.¹), or alternatively an instance of ring n.¹ 13a, given the occurrence of early Middle English spellings of that word with medial -e- ; compare quot. c1225 at ring n.¹ 13a, which has the corresponding passage in a different manuscript of the text.

Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps a specific sense development of renge n.¹ (compare later range n.² and discussion at that entry, and compare also earlier renge v.). Compare post-classical Latin rengia (1226, 1335 in British sources). With the forms rindge , ringe perhaps compare γ. forms at rinse v., and ringe , reenge , Scots variants of rinse n., with which the word may perhaps have been associated; alternatively, perhaps compare γ. forms at range n.¹ and adv., γ. forms at range v.¹

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French renger, Old French, Middle French rengier, variants of ranger range v.¹ Compare later range v.¹Older Scots β. forms probably show the same raising as non-Scots forms, although compare also γ. forms at range v.¹