Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GANG, n. [Sax. gang; D. Dan. G. gang; Sw. gång, a going, a pace or gait, a way, a passage, an alley, an avenue, a porch, portico or gallery; G. erzreicher gang, and Dan. mineralisk gang, a metallic vein, a streak in a mine; Goth. gagg, a way or street; gaggan, to go, to walk.]

1. Properly, a going; hence, a number going in company; hence, a company, or a number of persons associated for a particular purpose; as, a gang of thieves.
2. In seamen's language, a select number of a ship's crew appointed on a particular service, under a suitable officer. Mar. Dict.
3. In mining, literally a course or vein, but appropriately the earthy, stony, saline or combustible substance, which contains the ore of metals, or is only mingled with it, without being chimically combined. This is called the gang or matrix of the ore. It differs from a mineralizer, in not being combined with the metal. Cleaveland. [This word, in the latter sense, is most unwarrantably and erroneously written gangue.]