pinky

pinky¹ pinkish

Etymology tree of pinky¹

inherited borrowed derived

English pink

English pinky

Etymology

The adjective meaning pinkish is formed from English pink + -y.^[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tinged with pink: 1661, in S. Pordage's Mundorum Explicatio.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline dates the adjective to 1790,^[3] the Shorter Oxford to the late 18th century,^[5] while the revised OED has a record from 1661.^[2] It has kept its single sense, "somewhat pink".^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1661 – tinged with pink.^[2]
• 1790 – Etymonline's date for the adjective.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Somewhat pink; pinkish.^[4][2][5][6]

Word family

• pinkily
• pinkiness

pinky² little finger

Etymology

The little finger is probably borrowed from Dutch pinkje (“little finger”),^[7][3][4][8] which in the dialects of Holland has the form pinkie,^[1][9] a diminutive of pink (“little finger”).^[7][3][4][1] Etymonline takes the Dutch word to have meant originally "small, narrow".^[3] The OED records it from 1599, as pinck, and calls it of unknown origin, perhaps from children's language.^[2] The OED itself treats the English word as formed in Scots from pink (“a very small creature”), recorded before 1585, with the suffix -y, and only compares the Dutch word;^[2] the Shorter Oxford takes it partly from that Scots word and partly from the Dutch one,^[5] and the Oxford Dictionary of English partly from the Dutch.^[10] The OED adds that forms of pinkany seem to show that the word was current from the 16th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The little finger: 1808, in Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, which calls it a word used mostly by children or when talking to them.^[2][7][11] The adjective "small, tiny", also of the eyes "narrow, half-shut", is recorded earlier, from 1718, in Allan Ramsay.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word began in Scotland as a nursery word for the little finger and for anything very small.^[2][11] Bartlett listed it among Americanisms in 1848,^[11] and it became chiefly North American, as Collins and Chambers note.^[8][6] The general Scottish sense "something very small or insignificant" is now rare.^[2] The OED notes that it is occasionally used for the little toe as well.^[2] In 19th-century dialects the adjective pinky, small, or of the eyes narrow and half-shut, was used in Scotland and in the north and Midlands of England.^[12]

Timeline

• 1585–95 – Dictionary.com's date for the word.^[9]
• 1718 – adjective, small, tiny; of the eyes, narrow or half-shut (chiefly Scottish).^[2]
• 1808 – the little finger; also something very small (Scottish).^[2][7][3]
• 1848 – recorded in Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The little finger: She held the teacup with her pinky raised.^[8][4][2][9]
2. (Scottish, rare) Something very small.^[2][6]

Adjective

1. (chiefly Scottish) Small, tiny; of the eyes, narrow or half-shut.^{[4][2][6][12]}