pong

See also: Pong, pông, and -pong

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɒŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɔŋ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒŋ

Etymology 1

Probably from Romani pan (“to stink”).

Noun

pong (plural pongs)

1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A stench, a bad smell.
   • 1992, Bryce Courtenay, Tandia, Volume 1, 2011, Read How You Want, page 109,

     She sniffed, squiffing up her nose. ‘What a pong! Do they all smell like this?’

   • 1998, Catherine Fox, Heaven′s Scent: Third Way, page 13:

     I can remember calling round once and when she answered the door I was greeted by an unmistakable, noxious pong. “I can smell gas!”
     I said. “Oh, have I left the ring on?” she asked vaguely.

   • 2000, Susan Sallis, 2011, unnumbered page,

     ‘I see what you mean about the pong. I couldn′t smell it on myself but I can smell it on you!’

   • 2009, Martin Fine, The Devil′s Fragrance, page 109:

     If you want to empty a crowded room strong body pong will usually do the trick.

Related terms

• pongy

Translations

bad smell

• Bulgarian: воня (bg) f (vonja)
• Czech: smrad (cs) m, puch (cs) m
• Finnish: lemu (fi), löyhkä (fi)
• Portuguese: fedor (pt)
• Spanish: tufo (es) m
• Turkish: koku (tr)

Verb

pong (third-person singular simple present pongs, present participle ponging, simple past and past participle ponged)

1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) To stink, to smell bad.
   • 1997, Taufiq Ismail, David M. E. Roskies (translator and editor), Stop Thief!, Black Clouds Over the Isle of Gods and Other Modern Indonesian Short Stories, page 97,

     On she walked at a crawling pace, ponging of sweat, drops of mucus and blood falling between her feet.

   • 2009, Susan Brocker, Saving Sam, HarperCollins, New Zealand, unnumbered page,

     The place ponged, like the smell of stale cat pee.

   • 2010, Robin Easton, Naked in Eden: My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest, page 63:

     “ […] That toothless bloke ponged. Couldn′t you smell him? He smelled like a bloody pub floor at closing time.”

   • 2011, Victor Pemberton, We′ll Sing at Dawn, 2012, eBook, Headline Publishing, unnumbered page,

     […] and this evening, Eileen Perkins′s daughter Rita ponged with the smell of cheap carbolic soap, after a late-afternoon visit to the public baths down Hornsey Road.

2. (slang, theater, derogatory) To deliver a line of a play in an arch, suggestive or unnatural way, so as to draw undue attention to it.
3. (slang, theater, intransitive) To invent a line of dialogue when one has forgotten the actual line.
   • 2016, Jim Davis, European Theatre Performance Practice, 1750–1900:

     […] and the “good old crusted” actor, forgetting the lines of the author, used without compunction to cover his discomfiture by inventing a text of his own–an achievement known as "ponging."

Synonyms

• (stink): reek, smell, stink

Translations

to stink

• Bulgarian: воня (bg) (vonja)
• Finnish: lemuta (fi), löyhkätä (fi)
• Turkish: kokmak (tr)

Etymology 2

From ping, via the pairing of ping-pong.

Noun

pong (plural pongs)

1. (networking) A packet sent in reply to a ping, thereby indicating the presence of a host.

Etymology 3

Noun

pong (plural pongs)

1. (mahjong) Alternative form of pung

See also

• beer pong
• ping pong

 

Garo

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

pong

1. ladle made from a gourd (used especially for rice beer)

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from Hokkien 碰 (phòng). Compare English pung, Japanese 碰(ポン) (pon), Mandarin 碰 (pèng), Cantonese 碰 (pung³).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈpoŋ/ [ˈpoŋ]
• Rhymes: -oŋ
• Syllabification: pong

Noun

pong (Baybayin spelling ᜉᜓᜅ᜔)

1. (mahjong) pung (a set of three identical tiles)
2. (playground games) the word that the tagged it says when catching a playmate, as in the game of hide and seek

Further reading

• “pong” at KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino‎^[1], Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2021
• “pong”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018
• Chan-Yap, Gloria (1980) “Hokkien Chinese borrowings in Tagalog”, in Pacific Linguistics, volume B, number 71 (PDF), Canberra, A.C.T. 2600.: The Australian National University, page 146
• Manuel, E. Arsenio (1948) Chinese elements in the Tagalog language: with some indication of Chinese influence on other Philippine languages and cultures and an excursion into Austronesian linguistics, Manila: Filipiniana Publications, page 45