throng: [13] The etymological notion underlying throng is of ‘pressing together’. It was borrowed from Old Norse throng ‘crowd’, which went back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *thringg- ‘press’ (source also of German drang ‘crowd, pressure’ and dringen ‘press’). Amongst its non-Germanic relatives is Old Persian thraxta- ‘closely-packed’. [throng etymology, throng origin, 英语词源]