Plonk

Origin

The word 'plonk' has a somewhat humble and wartime beginning, tracing its roots to the trenches of World War I. British and Australian soldiers in France would often refer to cheap local wine as 'plonk,' a phonetic corruption of the French 'blanc,' as in vin blanc (white wine). The term was likely influenced by the sound of a heavy, often unsatisfying, thud or 'plonk,' perhaps referring to how a bottle was set down or even the quality of the wine itself. What started as a soldier's slang for their readily available, if not always palatable, white wine eventually made its way back home, embedding itself in English as a dismissive term for any cheap or low-quality wine.