Hong

name

Etymology: Borrowed from Mandarin 洪 (Hóng) or Taishanese 湯 /汤 (hong¹).

1. A surname from Mandarin or Taishanese.

noun

Etymology: From Cantonese 行 (hong4, “trade, business”).

1. A foreign trading company in China.

   “"You and your son are about to visit China," said a Chinese agent of an old and established hong in Canton. […] The speaker was Ah Hue, or Ah Hue-Ling. He had made a reputation for honorable dealing as an agent of the tea trade.”

   “In this partly manufactured state they are sold to collectors, who re-sell them to tea hongs, or factories, and these hongs in turn resell to middlemen, who supply the foreign exporter.”

verb

1. past of hang

   “Lyke an huge cave hewne out of rocky clifte, From whose rough vaut the ragged breaches hong”