pongo

See also: Pongo and Pongó

English

Etymology 1

From Kongo mpongo (“gorilla”).

Noun

pongo (plural pongos or pongoes)

1. (UK, military slang) A soldier.
2. (UK, slang) A lazy, good-for-nothing person.(Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)
3. (archaic) Any large ape.
   • 1871, Charles Waterton, Essays on Natural History..., page 158:

     […] asserts, that the apes called pongos, "kill many negroes that travel in the woods." […] [Regarding] pongos belabouring [i.e. beating] elephants, [he adds] that "a pongo ape carried off a young negro, […] "

   • 1876, Richard Francis Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, page 239:

     […] Pongos are never taken alive, owing to their strength, which is so great that ten men cannot hold one of them. The young Pongos hang upon their mother's belly, with their hands clasped about her. Many of the young ones are taken by […]

   • 1886, Robert Hartmann, Anthropoid apes, page 8:

     […] regarded the jockos, pongos, and orangs as animals all belonging to one species. The young African animals observed by him and von Tulpe (chimpanses) must have been young pongos (66). The name pongo was afterwards applied to the old misshapen orang-utan.

   • 1896, Alfred Edmund Brehm, From North Pole to Equator: Studies of Wild Life and Scenes ..., page 311:

     They—the pongos, the gorilla, the tschiego, and the chimpanzee—cannot be treated as animals, but must be associated with as men, […]

Etymology 2

The pongo of Manseriche.

From Peruvian Spanish [Term?], thought to be from Quechua puncu/punku or Aymara ponco "door, gate". Semantically, compare puerta.

Noun

pongo (plural pongos)

1. A river canyon or gorge in Peru, especially a narrow, deep one cutting through a ridge or mountain range, carved by an Andean river.

   Coordinate term: cluse

   • 1916, Isaiah Bowman, The Andes of Southern Peru, page 237:

     The result is again clearly shown in the topography of the valley wall which becomes bold, inclosing the river in narrow "pongos" or canyons filled with huge bowlders^[sic] and dangerous rapids.

   • 1964, David A. Robinson, Peru in Four Dimensions:

     [page 202:] Below the pongo, the Marañon is easily navigable […]
     [page 203:] Above the pongo, the river is sometimes referred to as the Vilcanota, but below it is always the Urubamba. The Pongo de Mainique is another magnificent landmark in Peru […]

   • 1987, Peru, a Travel Survival Kit, volume 1, page 221:

     […] continue through the pongo. The river is relatively calm afterwards (though there are still some rapids) but there are few settlements until you reach the oil town of Sapahua, about two to four days beyond the pongo.

   • 2000, Rob Rachowiecki, Peru, page 294:

     A member of the South American Explorers says that the trip to Atalaya is difficult on public transport because there are few boats between the pongo and Sepahua. Instead, you could build (or have someone else build) a balsa raft […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pongo.

Italian

Etymology 1

Borrowed from translingual Pongo, from Kongo mpongi, mpungu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔn.ɡo/
• Rhymes: -ɔnɡo
• Hyphenation: pòn‧go

Noun

pongo m (plural ponghi)

1. (zoology) any member of the Pongo taxonomic genus
2. (uncountable, usually capitalized as Pongo) the Pongo taxonomic genus

Etymology 2

From a brand name.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔn.ɡo/, /ˈpon.ɡo/
• Rhymes: -ɔnɡo, -onɡo
• Hyphenation: pòn‧go, pón‧go

Noun

pongo m (uncountable)

1. a kind of coloured/colored plasticine (play dough)

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpon.ɡo/
• Rhymes: -onɡo
• Hyphenation: pón‧go

Verb

pongo

1. first-person singular present indicative of porre

Further reading

• “pòngo”, in Vocabolario Treccani on line (in Italian), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2026
• “póngo”, in Vocabolario Treccani on line (in Italian), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈponɡo/ [ˈpõŋ.ɡo]
• Rhymes: -onɡo
• Syllabification: pon‧go

Etymology 1

Noun

pongo m (plural pongos)

1. orangutan

   Synonym: orangután

Etymology 2

Verb

pongo

1. first-person singular present indicative of poner

Etymology 3

Noun

pongo m (plural pongos)

1. pongo (canyon)

Further reading

• “pongo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025