plonk excl.,vt. [Usenet: possibly influenced by British slang plonk for cheap booze, or plonker for someone behaving stupidly (latter is lit. equivalent to Yiddish schmuck )] The sound a newbie makes as he falls to the bottom of a kill file. While it originated in the newsgroup talk.bizarre , this term (usually written *plonk* ) is now (1994) widespread on Usenet as a form of public ridicule.