Bong

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. A hollow pipe used for smoking substances like tobacco or cannabis, typically containing water to filter and cool the smoke
2. A device designed for inhaling smoke or vapor through water filtration, often associated with recreational drug use
3. An apparatus for smoking that utilizes a chamber filled with water to purify and moisten the inhaled substances

Etymology: The water pipe that gives "bong" its sense has an origin that runs through Thailand. The word comes from Thai "bɔ̂ng," a term for a marijuana pipe, and English first recorded it around 1971 in the publication Marijuana Review. Readers have long assumed a sound-based origin, and the word is generally treated as onomatopoeic, the sort of word meant to imitate a noise, here perhaps the gurgle of water in the chamber. Some scholars also compare it with the Sanskrit "bhaṅga," a word for hemp or cannabis preparations, which points to a much older Asian line of vocabulary for the plant. The connection is suggestive rather than settled, so the Thai source is the clearer documented pathway. The sense has since widened. The same word now names the beer bong, a funnel-and-tube device for drinking quickly, which shares the basic idea of a rapid, forced intake.

Synonyms: chime, ring, peal