"Mang" is a
slang expression used occasionally during
leisure sports. While not precisely an
onomatopoeia, the word is meant to represent the
sound of the
stick hitting the
cue ball slightly off-center, thereby wasting a shot as well as making the
player look quite stupid. Linguistic
historians generally agree that this word was
first used
in this context during a
1999 game of pool at the
Azalea Trace retirement community.
While the expression is usually used during games of pool, it is applicable to, and is often used during, other, slightly more alliterative and hyphenated games such as ping-pong, putt-putt, bumper pool, and darts. If taken in the more general sense, i.e. the sound made by a fuck-up of any sort, the term is also applicable to a variety of other fields. For instance, a poorly recieved term paper might be considered to be mang-worthy, as would an awkward dating maneuver that results in a slap in the face.