different between scent vs pong

English

Alternative forms

• sent (obsolete)

Etymology

From c.1400, borrowed from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell”), from Old French sentire "to feel, perceive, sense", from Latin sent?re, present active infinitive of senti?. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”), and thus related to Dutch zin (“sense, meaning”), German Sinn (“sense”), Low German Sinn (“sense”), Luxembourgish Sënn (“sense, perception”), Saterland Frisian Sin (“sense”), West Frisian sin (“sense”). The -c- appeared in the 17th century, possibly by influence of ascent, descent, etc., or by influence of science.

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?nt, IPA^(key): /s?nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt
• Homophones: cent, sent

Noun

scent (countable and uncountable, plural scents)

1. A distinctive odour or smell.

2. An odour left by an animal that may be used for tracing.

3. The sense of smell.

4. A perfume.
5. (figuratively) Any trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.
6. (obsolete) Sense, perception.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     A fit false dream, that can delude the sleeper's sent.

Usage notes

• Almost always applied to agreeable odors (fragrances).

Synonyms

Derived terms

• scented
• scentless

Translations

Verb

scent (third-person singular simple present scents, present participle scenting, simple past and past participle scented)

1. (transitive) To detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To have a suspicion of.

3. (transitive) To impart an odour to.
4. (intransitive, archaic) To have a smell.

   • Thunderbolts […] do sent strongly of brimstone.

5. To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.

Translations

Anagrams

• cents

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

Probably from Romani pan (“to stink”).

Noun

pong (plural pongs)

1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A stench, a bad smell.
   • 1992, Bryce Courtenay, Tandia, Volume 1, 2011, Read How You Want, page 109,

     She sniffed, squiffing up her nose. ‘What a pong! Do they all smell like this?’

   • 1998, Catherine Fox, Heaven?s Scent, Third Way, page 13,

     I can remember calling round once and when she answered the door I was greeted by an unmistakable, noxious pong. “I can smell gas!”

     I said. “Oh, have I left the ring on?” she asked vaguely.

   • 2000, Susan Sallis, 2011, unnumbered page,

     ‘I see what you mean about the pong. I couldn?t smell it on myself but I can smell it on you!’

   • 2009, Martin Fine, The Devil?s Fragrance, page 109,

     If you want to empty a crowded room strong body pong will usually do the trick.

Related terms

• pongy

Translations

Verb

pong (third-person singular simple present pongs, present participle ponging, simple past and past participle ponged)

1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To stink, to smell bad.
   • 1997, Taufiq Ismail, David M. E. Roskies (translator and editor), Stop Thief!, Black Clouds Over the Isle of Gods and Other Modern Indonesian Short Stories, page 97,

     On she walked at a crawling pace, ponging of sweat, drops of mucus and blood falling between her feet.

   • 2009, Susan Brocker, Saving Sam, HarperCollins, New Zealand, unnumbered page,

     The place ponged, like the smell of stale cat pee.

   • 2010, Robin Easton, Naked in Eden: My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest, page 63,

     “ […] That toothless bloke ponged. Couldn?t you smell him? He smelled like a bloody pub floor at closing time.”

   • 2011, Victor Pemberton, We?ll Sing at Dawn, 2012, eBook, Headline Publishing, unnumbered page,

     […] and this evening, Eileen Perkins?s daughter Rita ponged with the smell of cheap carbolic soap, after a late-afternoon visit to the public baths down Hornsey Road.

2. (slang, theater, derogatory) To deliver a line of a play in an arch, suggestive or unnatural way, so as to draw undue attention to it.
3. (slang, theater, intransitive) To invent a line of dialogue when one has forgotten the actual line.
   • 2016, Jim Davis, European Theatre Performance Practice, 1750–1900

     […] and the “good old crusted” actor, forgetting the lines of the author, used without compunction to cover his discomfiture by inventing a text of his own–an achievement known as "ponging."

Synonyms

• (stink): reek, smell, stink

Translations

Etymology 2

From ping, via the pairing of ping-pong.

Noun

pong (plural pongs)

1. (networking) A packet sent in reply to a ping, thereby indicating the presence of a host.

Etymology 3

Noun

pong (plural pongs)

1. (mahjong) Alternative form of pung

Garo

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

pong

1. ladle made from a gourd (used especially for rice beer)

Tagalog

Etymology

From Hokkien ?.

Noun

pong

1. (mahjong) A pung; a set of three identical tiles.
2. (playground games) the word that the tagged it says when catching a playmate, as in the game of hide and seek.