Ping pong

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

• ping-pong

Origin

Onomatopoeic. Ping-Pong (with dash) is a registered wordmark of Parker Brothers, first used in 1900 and registered in the United States in 1930,

USPTO trademark serial numbers 71295230, 71295231 and 71564016

and an example of a genericized trademark. Contrary to a common misconception, the word does not originate from the Chinese language.

Full definition of ping pong

Noun

1. Table tennis.
• 1900, , Daily Chronicle Chapter , Our correspondent seems to hope that the unclean, playing Ping-Pong with the clean, will become unpleasantly conscious of his uncleanness and reform.
2. (figuratively) An instance of figuratively bouncing something or someone back and forth.
• 1909, Thaddeus L. Bolton, The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods Chapter On the Efficacy of Consciousness, To be conscious is to be subject to just such a ping-pong of recurring nervous activities that effect muscle tone on one side and brain discharge on the other.

Related terms

• ping pong ball

Derived terms

• aerial ping pong
• ping pong show
• ping-pongist

Descendants

• Greek: πινγκ πονγκ

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To figuratively bounce or be bounced back and forth.