Pin

How to spell pin

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pin

What does pin mean?

1. nounA short, thin piece of metal with a sharp point, used to fasten or attach things.
2. verbTo fasten or hold something in place, especially using a pin or by pressing down firmly.

Pin in a sentence

• noun

  She used a small pin to hold the hem in place.

• verb

  Please pin the notice to the staff board this morning.

• noun

  A single pin kept the two sheets of paper together.

• verb

  The fallen branch can pin a cyclist against the kerb.

Where does pin come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is an old native word, recorded in Old English as 'pinn', where it meant a peg or a bolt rather than the slender steel fastener we picture today. It belongs to a wider West Germanic family, with relatives such as the Dutch 'pin' and German 'Pinne', all carrying the sense of a small pointed shaft. Scholars also connect it to the Latin 'pinna', meaning a feather, point, or pinnacle, which may have fed into the early form. Over the centuries the meaning narrowed from a wooden peg used in carpentry to the familiar thin metal pin for fastening cloth and paper. The spelling has stayed mercifully short and phonetic, which is why it almost never trips up an adult writer.

How the word is built

• pin (a single root word from Old English pinn: peg, bolt); no prefix or suffix