ping

Etymology

Partly onomatopoeic, and partly continuing Middle English pingen (“to push, shove, pierce, stab, prod, goad, urge, feel remorse, incite”), from Old English pyngan (“to prick”). Compare English pang.

noun

1. A high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.
   My car used to make an odd ping, but after the last oil change it went away.
   With a sudden ping, there was a rabbit there in the black labyrinth with him[.] 1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 89
2. (submarine navigation) A pulse of high-pitched or ultrasonic sound whose echoes provide information about nearby objects and vessels.
   The submarine sent out a ping and got an echo from a battleship.
3. (networking) A packet which a remote host is expected to echo, thus indicating its presence.
   The network is overloaded from all the pings going out.
4. (text messaging, Internet) An email or other message sent requesting acknowledgement.
   I sent a ping to the insurance company to see if they received our claim.
5. (networking) Latency.
   April 4 2000, CaPRubberchecks, “Low-Ping servers...YIKES!”, in alt.games.starsiege.tribes (Usenet):
   "You low ping c**t, you only win cos of your ping!" > > And other such insights into why I was winning. November 8 2000, the_mad...@my-deja.com, “HL DM with a low ping.......”, in alt.games.half-life (Usenet)
   August 2 2001, Asha, “high ping in cs low ping outside cs??”, in alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (Usenet):
   Your best bet to negate lag is to go to a server using the zero ping mutator. This will compensate for your high ping when using a pistol, sniper or […] June 24 2002, drip, “Bandwidth - Lagtime”, in alt.games.unreal.tournament (Usenet)
6. (video games) A means of highlighting a feature on the game map so that allied players can see it.
7. (Wikimedia jargon) A notification.

verb

1. To make a high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.
   My car was pinging until my last oil change.
   The microwave pinged. He forked the steak onto the plate and set the timer again. 2013, Francine Rivers, And the Shofar Blew
2. (submarine navigation) To emit a signal and then listen for its echo in order to detect objects.
3. (networking) To send a packet in order to determine whether a host is present, particularly by use of the ping utility.
   Coordinate term: poll
   I'm pinging their server.
   The server pings its affiliates periodically.
   Just because you cannot ping a server or telnet to it does not mean that the server is down or inaccessible. 2008, Allan Reid, Jim Lorenz, Working at a Small-to-Medium Business or ISP, Cisco Press
4. (by extension) To send an email or other message to someone in hopes of eliciting a response.
   Coordinate term: buzz
   I'll ping the insurance company again to see if they've received our claim.
   If any deeper etymology is required, Arthur, don't ping me; I'll ping you. 2001-11-25, William Safire, “On Language; The Arab Street”, in New York Times
   If certain attendees don't actively participate and that's a surprise to you, ping them an email or private chat message and ask what's happening for them. 2014, Jessica Pryce-Jones, Julia Lindsay, Running Great Meetings and Workshops For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, page 294
5. (colloquial) To flick.
   I pinged the crumb off the table with my finger.
6. (colloquial, sports, intransitive) To bounce.
   The ball pinged off the wall and came hurtling back.
7. (colloquial, sports, transitive) To cause something to bounce.
   Charging through the Bolton midfield to find a free moment, Essien then pinged the ball into the space into which Drogba was intelligently running. December 29, 2010, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC
8. (colloquial, sports) To call out audibly.
   However, after an inside pass from Moody to Tom Croft and a surge from the England blind-side, number eight James Haskell was eventually pinged from in front of the posts for not releasing. September 24, 2011, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport
9. (colloquial) To penalize.
   Gary Ablett was pinged for holding the ball and gave away a free kick.