OOAK Table Tennis Forum

…you probably shouldn't have a T-shirt with just the word "PONG" on it and no indication that it's "Ping Pong", otherwise everyone will just think you have B.O. and are proud of it. Yes, I did see it online, but just for a change, I don't want to embarrass the vendor.

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I don't see connection between PONG and B.O. - is this something specific to AU, like local slang or something?

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

pong |pɒŋ | Brit. informal
noun
a strong, unpleasant smell. corked wine has a powerful pong.
verb [ no obj. ]
smell strongly and unpleasantly. the place just pongs of dirty clothes.
DERIVATIVES
pongy |ˈpɒŋi | adjective (pongier, pongiest)
ORIGIN early 20th cent.: of unknown origin.

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Hmm - I guess it won't work well there then. Here it's more likely to evoke the first video game, 'Pong' and Ping Pong, of course.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

This reminds me of a debate on a radio talk show on my way home from work the other day.

It talked about whether to be straight forward towards someone who's using the grammar incorrectly or ignore them if you can out of courtesy within a conversation.
Some say that maybe towards your closer friends you're obligated and its better to tell them the correct way of pronouncing words etc.
Some say if you can ignore it might as well out of respect towards the person you're talking to.

In this case, if you go all pedantic on pong as a word you would imagine the ones wearing the shirt as promoting B.O issues for example.
And me, if i see someone wearing a shirt with the word pong on it, i'd probably relate it more to beer pongs, and pong the old arcade game, even if i know pong is related to funky smell, those two comes to my head first.

All taken in perspectives I guess.

(oh on the debate of whether I should correct the person if there's an incident that he/she mispronounce a word, depends on the situation and how well I've known the person)

1- obviously in a meeting where your boss are giving a speech no-no
2- driving in a car with my mum or dad yes
3-dinner with girlfriend yes.
4- talking with a stranger at the bus stop no
haha you get my idea

Reminds me of hats that you can buy at the markets (and presumably some shops would sell them) that have the word "DOPE" printed on them. I've seen the odd person wearing them even. But to me its like they're labelling themselves A dope...as in a stupid person...and well you know, if the cap fits....

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Ha ha, I've never heard of "pong" having that meaning. If I saw that, I would think of ping pong or the video game, as pgpg has pointed out also.

LOL, someone who would refer to themselves as being "dope" truly is a "dope".

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hm, it is good then i didnt knew that in high-school when they call me Pongy (because of my last name "Pongrac" and i played ping-pong)

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No, I've definitely heard the word "Pong" used to describe unpleasant odors in the US - it's not just a British thing. Which is why I thought the name "I-Pong" unfortunate when I first came across it. It is true in the US that some people (mainly frat kids in the basement) refer to table tennis as "Pong".

"Pongier" and "Pongiest" -

Now, about "dope". Apparently, these days, among the hip (or maybe it's just the hip-hop) words such as "dope", "bomb" and "pimp" have entirely new meanings - apparently they're used to describe things which are excellent or admirable. I came across this video some months ago and it never fails to give me a bad case of the giggles.



Apparently, table tennis (they mean the video game, not what WE play) isn't just "dope", it's "dopest". Those two guys on the intro picture, though.. if that doesn't fit the very definition of "dopey", I don't know what does...

Iskandar