pinball

Etymology

It is formed from English pin + ball.^[2][3][4] The first sense, a pincushion, followed the older words pincushion and pin-pillow.^[2] Dictionary.com marks the word as an Americanism.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pincushion: 1803, in a letter of E. S. Bowne;^[2][3] the OED now calls this sense historical.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The game sense is recorded from 1907 in Etymonline, for a game on a sloping surface in which the aim was to knock down a pin or pins;^[3] the OED records it from 1911, for a game like bagatelle in which a marble is driven up a sloping board set with pins as hazards and targets;^[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1880–85.^[4] Etymonline records the tabletop pin-ball machine from 1937.^[3] From 1942 the word also named the small metal ball of the machine, which became a type of anything knocked rapidly and haphazardly from place to place;^[2] from this came the verb, to move quickly from one thing or place to another, in 1955.^[2] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dates the intransitive verb to 1974.^[5] In American plant names, pinball is the round flower head of the buttonbush, named for its shape, recorded from 1892.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 1803 – a pincushion.^[2][3]
• 1892 – the buttonbush or its round flower head, in New Hampshire.^[6]
• 1907 – a game played on a sloping surface with pins.^[3] The OED's first record of the game is from 1911.^[2]
• 1937 – the tabletop pinball machine.^[3]
• 1942 – the metal ball used in a pinball machine.^[2]
• 1955 – verb, to move quickly and haphazardly from place to place.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A game played on a pinball machine, in which the player shoots a small ball up a sloping table and keeps it moving among obstacles and targets that score points: They spent the afternoon playing pinball at the arcade.^[8][9][7][2]
2. The small metal ball used in this game, often taken as the type of something bounced about at random.^[2]
3. A ball-shaped pincushion.^[7][2]
4. The round flower head of the buttonbush.^[7][6]

Verb

1. To move quickly or haphazardly from one place or thing to another, like the ball in a pinball machine: The rumour pinballed around the office.^[2][5]

Word family

• pinballer
• pinball machine

Related words

• pin
• ball

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 o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin