Notes » August 2008

Bing Bum

It's likely no surprise to you that ping pong is derived from the Chinese name for the game (I can't bring myself to call it a sport, but let's just let that go, shall we?), but what you may not know is the name is a Chinese onomatope.

As with English onomatopes, the Chinese name reflects the sound of the game: ping pang qiu (乒乓球) in Putonghua (Mandarin), and bing bam bo in Cantonese (where "bam" sounds similar to "bum" and "bo" sounds like "baw"); literally bing bang ball.

Clearly English adopted the Mandarin pronunciation over the Cantonese, which is a good thing, because otherwise we'd all be calling the game bing bum, which to our ears sounds like a description of a cherry-red behind.

Now that I think about it, I can only imagine the utter confusion Chinese speakers suffer when they hear the expression badabing.

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