plonk (networking, abuse) (Usually written "*plonk*") The sound a newbie makes as he falls to the bottom of a kill file.
In the first of a series of humourous books by Stephen Potter, "One-Upmanship" (published in 1952) a "plonk" - a pompous bit of misinformation said in a "plonking" tone - was a key feature of his advice on how to "creatively intimidate" someone by making them feel inferior and thereby gain the status of being "one-up" on them. Since these efforts are usually transparently pathetic, the term became widely applied to any idiotic statement. The term appeared on-line in the Usenet newsgroup news:talk.bizarre and, by 1994, was widespread on Usenet and mailing lists as a form of public ridicule. The term may have been influenced by British slang "plonker" for someone behaving stupidly. The expansion "Person with Little Or No Knowledge" may be a backronym. Last updated: 2012-05-27
