Etymology

plinky-plonky

Today it means: Especially of a musical instrument such as a piano: making sharp, tinny sounds; plinky. Full definition →

English plonky
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The story

  1. Englishplink
  2. Englishplinky
  3. Englishplonk
  4. Englishplonky
  5. English todayplinky-plonky

From plinky + plonky, a reduplication of plinky. Plinky is derived from plink (“to make a plink sound”, verb) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’); and plonky from plonk (“(noun) sound of something solid landing; (verb) to set or toss (something) down carelessly”) + -y. Both plink and plonk are onomatopoeic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.