different between fling vs pling

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fl??/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From Middle English fling, from the verb (see below). Compare Icelandic flengur (“a fast sprint”).

Noun

fling (plural flings)

1. An act of throwing, often violently.
2. An act of moving the limbs or body with violent movements, especially in a dance.

3. An act or period of unrestrained indulgence.
   • 1838, Douglas William Jerrold, Men of Character

     When I was as young as you, I had my fling. I led a life of pleasure.
4. A short casual sexual relationship.

   Synonym: hookup

5. (figuratively) An attempt, a try (as in "give it a fling").
6. (obsolete) A severe or contemptuous remark; an expression of sarcastic scorn; a gibe or taunt.
   • c. 1732, Jonathan Swift, Epistle to a Lady

     I, who love to have a fling, / Both at senate house and king.

7. A lively Scottish country dance.

8. (obsolete) A trifling matter; an object of contempt.
   • ante 1800, old proverb

     England were but a fling / Save for the crooked stick and the grey goose wing.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English flingen, flengen, from Old Norse flengja (“to whip”), from Proto-Germanic *flangijan? (“to beat, whip”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh?k- (“to beat”). Cognate with Icelandic flengja (“to spank”), Norwegian flengja (“to rip, tear, or fling open”).

Verb

fling (third-person singular simple present flings, present participle flinging, simple past flung or (colloquial or dialectal, nonstandard) flang or (nonstandard) flinged, past participle flung or (nonstandard) flinged)

1. (intransitive, now archaic) To move (oneself) abruptly or violently; to rush or dash.
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 113:

     I see, sir, said I, I see what a man I am with. […] And away I flung, leaving him seemingly vexed, and in confusion.

   • I flung closer to his breast, / As sword that, after battle, flings to sheath.

2. (transitive) To throw with violence or quick movement; to hurl.
   • I know thy generous temper well. / Fling but the appearance of dishonour on it, / It straight takes fire.
3. (intransitive, archaic) To throw; to wince; to flounce.
   • 1836, Helen Crocket, The Ettrick Shepherd's Last Tale

     The horse flung most potently, making his heels fly aloft in the air.

4. (intransitive, archaic) To utter abusive language; to sneer.

Translations

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

pling (plural plings)

1. (computing, dated) The symbol ! (an exclamation mark).
   • 1989, "John Littler, John Maher", Computers in the laboratory: a student guide to microprocessor interfacing

     This illustrates the order in which bytes are poked into memory with the pling operator.

   • 1994, "C.P. Brown", HAhAhA (on Internet newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.advocacy)

     IMO, prefixing a directory name with a pling so that a program within it is run when you double click on it is a rather untidy way to do things.

   • 1994, Stewart Palmer, Mark Moir, Developing CD-ROM products for Acorn machines

     Make sure that you consider ISO 9660 restrictions on the use of characters in disc, directory and file names. Only upper case alpha and numeric characters plus the underscore (_) and pling (!) can be used as legal characters.

   • 1996, "Tim Wiser", Pling thing revisited (on newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.apps)

     Acorn Computing used to be big offenders when it came to referring to applications by their pling-inclusive names. They loved it. Unfortunately it made their articles sound silly (for want of a better adjective).

Usage notes

• Associated with Acorn Computers, e.g. used in the 1980 manual for the Acorn Atom, Atomic Theory and Practice by David Johnson-Davies.

West Flemish

Noun

pling n (plural plings)

1. sports field
2. square