different between pong vs prong

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

Probably from Romani pan (“to stink”).

Noun

pong (plural pongs)

1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand, 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

Verb

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

1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand, 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

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

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

From Hokkien ?.

Noun

pong

1. (mahjong) A 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.

English

Etymology

From Middle English pronge, perhaps from Middle Low German prange (“stick, restraining device”), from prangen (“to press, pinch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)preng- (“to wrap up, constrict”), akin to Lithuanian springstù (“to choke, become choked or obstructed”), Latvian sprañgât (“cord, constrict”), Ancient Greek ????????? (sparganó?, “to swaddle”), ????????? (spárganon, “swaddling cloth”). See also prank, prance, prink.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /p???/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

prong (plural prongs)

1. A thin, pointed, projecting part, as of an antler or a fork or similar tool. A tine.

   a pitchfork with four prongs

2. A branch; a fork.

   the two prongs of a river

3. (colloquial) The penis.
   • 2008, Andy Zaltzman on The Bugle podcast, episode 34, You Will Know Us By Our Knobbly Fruit.

     Hang on... That looks like... No, it can't be. Is that my wang!? Micky Paintbrush, have you painted my papal prong on that nudy man!?

Derived terms

• pronghorn

Translations

See also

• tine
• tooth

Verb

prong (third-person singular simple present prongs, present participle pronging, simple past and past participle pronged)

1. To pierce or poke with, or as if with, a prong.

Translations