- bang (v.)
- 1540s, "to strike hard with a loud blow," from a Scandinavian sourse akin to Old Norse banga "to pound, hammer" of echoic origin. Slang meaning "have sexual intercourse with" first recorded 1937. Bang-up "excellent, first-rate," 1820, probably shortened from phrase bang up to the mark. The noun is recorded from late 16c.
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
[T.S. Eliot, "Hollow Men," 1925]
