[Ads-l] "to ping" (and OED Online)

[Jonathan Lighter]

MSNBC re Hillary & D----d:

"She dinged him and pinged him...."

'To goad or provoke; needle.'

JL


On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 11:30 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "to ping" (and OED Online)
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>
> WB: Pinger in Chinese. Fast & dirty query of internet
> =E2=80=8Breveals
> :
>
> (1) <towed pinger locator> =3D [tuo1-ye4-shi4 // sheng1-bo1 fa1-she4 qi4
> //=
>  di
> ng4-wei4-qi4] (lit. <towed // acoustic emission device // locate device>
>
> (2) <pinger> =3D [ping2-er] (sort of like [PING-ahr]): sinogram for
> <duckweed> + diminutive suffix (lit. <child, son>); the duckweed sinogram
> is used in expressions for <moving about rootlessly, aimless wandering,
> like duckweed on a pond>.
>
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