Etymology of SPQR2Gang

The shield of SPQR2Gang.

The name SPQR2Gang has a long history. Nowadays, it can be spelt in many different ways, including SPQR2Gang, SPQR2 Gang and spqr2gang. The organization’s name has also been a great source of confusion, due to its similarity to other English words. Contrary to how it may first seem, the term “SPQR2Gang” has nothing to do with Ancient Rome or with the modern meaning of the English word “gang”.

The name SPQR2Gang can be broken into two parts, SPQR2 and gang. The latter part, gang, is not the same as the English word, but rather is derived from the Old Tibetan word གིང, originally pronounced “ging”. The term referred to the ging warriors, a class of minor deities appearing as skeletons beating a drum, hence the imagery of skeletons often used in SPQR2Gang symbolism. The members of the Chaan’s original company adopted this term for each its members, which eventually evolved into the current word gang. The former part of the name, SPQR2 was added onto the term gang around the 19th century to describe the modern iteration of the Gang (known as the “Third Gang”) which was emerging around that time. Therefore, the name SPQR2Gang is roughly equivalent to, “the warriors of SPQR2”.