Forms: α. 2 Stanenges, Stanenheng, Stanheng, 3–4 Stonheng(e, 5 Stone hengles, Stonehenges, 5– Stonehenge. β. 6 stonege, 7 stonage. [f. STONE sb.; the second element may have meant something ‘hanging’ or supported in the air: cf. OE. hęnge-clif ‘præruptum’ (Suppl. to Ælfric’s Glossary); in the compound the word was prob. originally plural.
A spurious form Stanhengest occurs in some Latin chronicles (a 1500) in connection with a story of a massacre of British nobles by Hengist at Stonehenge.]
Name of a celebrated stone circle on Salisbury Plain; hence applied allusively to similar structures elsewhere.
α. 11[?]. Henry of Huntington, Hist. Angl., I. (Rolls), 12. Quatuor autem sunt, quæ mira videntur in Anglia…. Secundum est, apud Stanenges.
11[?]. Geoffrey of Monm., Hist. Brit., XI. iv. (1844), 204. Intra lapidum structuram sepultus fuit, quæ haud longe a Salesberia mira arte composita, Anglorum lingua Stanheng nuncupatur.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 3222. Ac arst was þe king ybured … Wiþinne þe place of stonheng [v.rr. þe stonheng; stonhenge].
1470. Hardyng, Chron., lxx. (1812), 117. The Giauntes carole,… The stone hengles [v.r. Stonehenges], that nowe so named been. Ibid., lxxxvi. 150. Whiche called is the stone Hengles [v.r. Stonehenge].
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 251. (Wilshire) Certaine mighty and unwrought stones,… upon the heads of which, others like ouerthwart peeces do beare and rest crossewise,… so as the whole frame seemeth to hang: whereof we call it Stonehenge.
a. 1722. Toland, Hist. Druids, Coll. Pieces (1726), I. 23. Hard by is her Temple; being a sort of diminutive Stonehenge.
1801. J. Barrow, Trav. S. Africa, I. 373. The … fragments … rolling from the upper ridges, had tumbled on each other, forming natural … colonnades, and Stonehenges.
1821. Scott, Pirate, xl. A rising ground, whence they commanded a full view of the Orcadian Stonehenge.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxxvi. A dreary waste of cold potatoes, looking as eatable as Stonehenge.
β. 1541. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., i. (1870), 120. Vpon the playn of Salysbury is the stonege, whyche is certayne great stones, some standyng, and some lyenge ouerthawart.
1647. G. Tooke, Belides, 39. As who with skill … his journey manage will, Does often from the beaten road withdraw, Or to behold a Stonage, taste a Spaw, Or [etc.].
a. 1670. [Gibbons], Fools Bolt soon shot at Stonage, in Hearne, P. Langtoft’s Chron., II. 505. The Israelites … did by God’s command erect a stonage of twelve Stones in the midst of Jordan.
1701. C. Leslie, Short Method with Deists, I. (ed. 3), 17. Ther is the Stonage in Salisbury-Plain. Every body knows it. Ibid., 18. Now let us Compare this with the Stonage, as I may call it, or Twelve Great Stones set up at Gilgal.
