fink

Etymology

The origin is unknown or uncertain.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The most common proposal is borrowed from German Fink, literally "finch" (as in finch), also a scornful word for a frivolous, dissolute or untidy person, and in student slang a student who did not belong to a students' association;^{[8][6][9][7][10]} the Oxford Dictionary of English thinks students gave outsiders this name by comparing them with free wild birds as opposed to caged ones, and the word was later extended to people outside trade unions.^[7] Others point to German compounds such as Schmierfink (“low, dirty hack”) and Schmutzfink (“dirty person”),^{[8][6][4][10]} the American Heritage Dictionary adds possible influence from a German underworld word for "man",^[8] and Barnhart and Etymonline note that the German word could also mean an informer, like English stool pigeon.^[6][9] Dictionary.com says that the way the word reached English and the range of its English meanings have not been fully explained.^[10] A popular story, reported in the “American Mercury” in 1926, traces it to “Pinks”, the Pinkerton agents hired against the strikers at Homestead in 1892,^[4][6][9] but Green's Dictionary of Slang thinks this probably spurious, since no example of fink "strikebreaker" has been found before 1914.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An unpleasant or untrustworthy person: 1894, in George Ade's newspaper stories of Chicago.^[4] The OED's first record, with a student's sense, is in Ade's People You Know (1903): "Anyone who goes against the Faculty single-handed is a Fink."^[2][4][6] Etymonline dates the word to 1902,^[9] and the New Partridge has "informer" from 1902.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From a contemptible person the word narrowed in American criminal and labour slang to an unreliable confederate (1914),^[4] an informer or detective,^[2][11] and a strikebreaker or non-union worker (1917).^[11][2] Damon Runyon defined a fink in 1938 as a character lower than a mudcat's vest pocket.^[4] The verb, to inform on someone, is recorded from 1925, in Flynn's magazine,^[2][4][9] and fink out, to back out of something, especially through cowardice, from 1959–66.^[4][2] The word is still chiefly North American.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 1894 – an unpleasant, untrustworthy person.^[4] The OED's first date is 1903.^[2][3]
• 1902 – an informer.^[11]
• 1914 – an unreliable confederate, in criminal slang.^[4]
• 1917 – a non-union worker or strikebreaker.^[11]
• 1925 – verb, to inform on someone.^[2][4][3]
• 1959 – verb, to back down, let someone down.^[4] The OED's first record of fink out is from 1966.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang, chiefly US) An informer, especially one who informs to the police.^[5][3][2]
2. (slang, chiefly US) A strikebreaker.^[5][3][2]
3. (slang) An unpleasant, untrustworthy or contemptible person.^[5][3][4]

Verb

1. (slang) To inform, or inform on someone: He swore he would never fink on his cellmates.^[5][3][4]
2. (slang) fink out: to back out of a commitment, or let someone down.^[2][12][4]

Word family

• ratfink
• fink out

Related words

• finch

Usage notes

In South African English fink is also a name for the weaver bird, borrowed separately from Afrikaans vink (“finch”) and recorded from 1834.^[2][3] A non-standard fink representing a colloquial pronunciation of think is recorded from 1888, in Kipling.^[2][12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press