ping

Etymology

It is imitative of a short, sharp, high-pitched sound,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} at first that of a bullet,^[3][7] and the OED compares pong.^[2] The computing sense was named by the American programmer Michael Muuss, who wrote the original program, after the pulse of sonar;^[8] Etymonline adds that it may also combine the sound word with ping-pong, itself formed on ping.^[3][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an interjection representing a short, resonant, high-pitched sound, such as that of a bullet: 1835, in J. E. Alexander's Sketches in Portugal.^[2][3] The noun and the verb are recorded from 1855,^[2][10][3] the noun in the Times and the verb in the Illustrated London News.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first described the sound of a bullet flying through the air or striking something,^[3][7] and then any similar sharp ringing sound, as of a small bell.^[2] From the 1920s, chiefly in American and Australian use, it meant the knocking or pinking of a car engine.^[2][10] In the Second World War it named the short pulse of high-pitched sound sent out by sonar (1943).^[2][3] Computer programmers borrowed this use: by 1983 a ping was a packet sent to test whether a networked computer responds,^[2][11] and to ping meant to send one;^[2][3] from 1990 the verb was extended colloquially to sending a person an email or text,^[2][12] while the noun has meant since 1995 the delay between two devices on a network.^[2] Australian slang has used the verb for "to penalize" since 1933 and the noun for "a try", as in have a ping at, since the 1970s.^[13] In Scottish and Yorkshire dialect ping was the sound of a hard object striking metal or stone, such as a pick striking coal.^[14]

Timeline

• 1835 – interjection, a sharp ringing sound.^[2]
• 1855 – noun and verb, a short high-pitched sound.^[2][10]
• 1892 – to shoot at something.^[2]
• 1927 – the knocking of an engine.^[2]
• 1933 – (Australian slang) to penalize.^[13]
• 1943 – a sonar pulse.^[2]
• 1983 – (computing) a test packet; to send one.^[2]
• 1990 – to send someone an email or message.^[2]
• 1995 – the delay on a computer network.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A short, high-pitched ringing sound, like that of a bullet striking metal or a small bell: the ping of the microwave.
2. A pulse of sound sent out by sonar, or its echo.
3. (computing) A signal sent to a networked computer to check whether it responds and how quickly; also, the delay measured in this way.
4. (chiefly US) The knocking of an engine.

Verb

1. To make a short, high-pitched ringing sound.
2. (computing) To send a ping to a computer or device.
3. (informal) To contact someone with a quick email or text message: Ping me when the report is ready.
4. (Australian, informal) To penalize.

Word family

• pinger

Related words

• ping-pong
• pong
• pink

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford also record an old verb ping, to prick, poke or push, from Latin pungō (“to prick”), used since Old English; it is now obsolete except in south-western dialect,^[2][4] where the English Dialect Dictionary records it for Somerset and Devon with the past forms pung and pung'd.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)