a HackerNoon project
Original · left

Ping (sound or sonar)

A short, sharp metallic sound, or a solitary high-frequency acoustic pulse emitted by a submarine sonar.

First in use: the 1940s
Duplicate · right

Ping (networking)

An ICMP network diagnostic utility sent to an IP address to determine reachability and measure round-trip response time.

First in use: c. 1983

Ping / Ping (sound or sonar) / Ping (networking)

Loading data…
Canonical todayMeasuring…
Status—
Duplicate share · 12 mo—
Last crossover—
Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Submarine sonar gave Mike Muuss the name.

Which meaning of Ping is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Ping (sound or sonar) came first (the 1940s). Ping (networking) arrived in 1983. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Ping (sound or sonar)Ping (networking)
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · the 1940s

Ping (sound or sonar)

Loading the Wikipedia definition…

12-mo pageviews—
Year over year—
Peak month—
Duplicate · c. 1983

Ping (networking)

Loading the Wikipedia definition…

12-mo pageviews—
Year over year—
Peak month—

More duplicated terms

Cloud & infrastructure