DCHP-2

vang bang, fang DCHP-2 (November 2016)

• n. — Food, Newfoundland, obsolete

  melted pork fat or fried cubed pork fat.

  Type: 2. Preservation — Vang is a preservation from British English, where it is attested as far back as 1742 (see EDD, s.v. "fang"). In Canada, the term seems to be most often used in the Maritimes, especially Newfoundland, and is attested by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English back to 1828 (see DNE, s.v. "vang"). The term is most likely outdated, since the 2008 recent quotation places the term within an alphabet rhyme, while most uses appear to be found in the 1800s. The term seems to have been used often with "fish", as in "fish and bang" (see the 1828 and 1836 quotations).

  See also: scrunchions  

  • Note the variation in the initial consonant, from bilabial stop [b] to fricatives [v] and [f]. Following a well-established sound change in the history of English in many context, this variation points towards an older dialect word staring in [b] as the source of vang.

  • 1828  (1990)  [What would be the horror] to see [the fishermen] regaling themselves on fish and bang, off the plate of Staffordshire.
  • 1834-1836  (1836)  the people laid the board for our meals; and even while partaking of their rude fare, as it was slung out of the pot upon the board, for it usually consisted of pork and fish boiled together, which they call "fish and bang," I could not refrain from such indulgence, even though at the expense of my coat. 
  • 1898  There is not a point around which memory lingers with more pleasure than when on a fishing excursion, I indulged in fish and vang on board a fishing jack. The real turkey could not be a more solid and palatable meal. 
  • 1903-1904  (1903)  Fresh meat of any kind was very scarce, and not at all procurable in the summer time. From the old people we learn that "Bublem's Squeak" (a compound of corn beef and vegetables), "Colcannon" (potatoes and cabbage), "Twice Laid" (salt fish mashed with potatoes, butter, salt, etc.), "Vang" (fat pork cut up into small squares and fried in batter), and "brose" or "brewis" were amongst the dishes in vogue. 
  • 2008  Barvel, clavey, duncher and elt lead page by page, with a certain inevitability, to V and vang, an unappealing dish of melted fatback, with pratie (potato) and cod junks; to W and wit-rod; to X, "the mark/ that you make in the air,/ Your finger is pointing,/ You bivver with fear"; to Y and "yes-ma'am,/ A sharp dip or bump"; and finally, to "zosweet,/ A Beothuk word/ for a brownish-in-summer/ but winter-white bird."