On Sun, 05 Oct 2003 18:33:36 +0200, Piotr Gasiorowski
<
piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>05-10-03 00:58, Miguel Carrasquer wrote:
>> An interesting word is Dutch/Frisian/English pink (pinkie) "little finger",
>> the fifth finger (depending on how you count): if this has to do with
>> *penkWe, then it can't be Germanic, nor Celtic, nor Latin/Romance in
>> origin.
>
>The earliest attestation of <pink(ie)> 'tiny, small; little finger' is
>rather recent (15th-16th c.). Is there any evidence that the meaning
>'little finger' is historically primary? In English, the most
>characteristic collocation before the 19th c. was <pink eyes> (or <pink
>nyes>, <pinkeny>, Sc. <pinkie een>, with parallel expressions in Dutch),
>where <pink> means 'narrowed, half-shut'.
De Vries/Tollenaere give pink "little finger" 1567, and under pinken "to
blink (the eyes)" pinckoogen 1599. In Dutch, the two meanings appear to be
unrelated. There are 6 words <pink> in van Dale:
1. little finger
2. a kind of boat (< Fr. pinque)
3. year-old calf
4. a small bird
5. wink, moment ("Zuidnederlands")
6. sound imitating a bird (e.g. a finch)
Related words are:
pinkbul "young bull"
1. pinkel "little finger"
2. pinkel "wooden stick used in the game of pinkelen"
1. pinkelen "a game"
2. pinkelen "blink, wink (eyes); twinkle (stars); prickle (fingers)"
pinkelhoutje "piece of wood used in the game of pinkelen"
pinkeling "little finger"
1. pinken "use the little finger (e.g. to remove a tear)"
"hook the pinkies together (children's games; make a wish)"
2. pinken "blink, wink; twinkle"
3. pinken = 1. pinkelen
4. pinken (in the expression "bij de pinken zijn" ~ be alert)
1. pinker "pointy stick used in the game of pinkelen"
2. pinker "one who blinks; eyelash"
pinkeren = 1. pinkelen
pinkhaar "eyelash"
pinkogen "blink, wink"
pinkstier = pinkbul
The pointy stick is probably the same word as pink "little finger" (cf. OE
pinca "point"), but still the metaphor may have gone both ways.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...