A ping is a short high electronic note. The microwave pinged, a ping from the phone, hear a ping.
It is the sound of a notification, a lift arriving or a sonar return, and the word is the sound. In networking, ping is the standard tool that sends a packet and measures how long the reply takes — ping the server, a ping of forty milliseconds — and it is named after submarine sonar. Informally, to ping somebody means to send them a quick message. Note ping-pong, which is table tennis named the same way.
1nounpingA short high electronic note.
“There is a ping from something in that room about every four minutes.”
2verbsendTo send a quick message or signal.
“Ping me when you get there and I will come down.”
ping is a short sound or signal.
Middle English pingen meant to prick or prod, and the modern sound word is essentially a fresh imitation. The networking tool was written in 1983 and named deliberately after the sonar pulse.
Old English
pyngan — to prick
Middle English
pingen — to push, shove, pierce, stab, prod, goad, urge, feel remorse, incite
English, today
ping
Partly imitative of the sound, and partly continuing Middle English pingen (“to push, shove, pierce, stab, prod, goad, urge, feel remorse, incite”), from Old English pyngan (“to prick”), in turn likely from pungere. Compare English pang.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sounds & Noises