The story
- Old English · inherited frompyngan“to prick”
- Middle English · inherited frompingen“to push, shove, pierce, stab, prod, goad, urge, feel remorse, incite”
- English todayping
Partly onomatopoeic, 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 4.0.