Etymologically
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pinky

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Pronunciation

pinky1 pinkish

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]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)