skip to content skip to search skip to navigation Listen Live skip to logon

Why are awards referred to as "gongs"?

oscarsQuestion

After reading about the Oscars, I wondered why awards were referred to as ‘gongs’? Why is that?
Suzanne, Rochester

Answer

** Definitive **
Name: James O’Brien
Qualification: Know it all!
Answer: It’s about medals. A medal on your lapel looks like a gong. So a medal became known as a gong. That was then widened in popular language to all awards being referred to as gongs.

In this Section