Pinky

How to spell pinky

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pinky

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pinky mean?

1. nounThe smallest finger of the hand, next to the ring finger.

Pinky in a sentence

• She caught her pinky in the car door and bruised it badly.

• The pianist stretched her pinky to reach the highest key.

Where does pinky come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Pinky comes from the Dutch word pink, which simply meant 'little finger', and English borrowed the term in the seventeenth century, originally in Scotland and the north before spreading more widely. The familiar ending -y was attached to give the cosy, diminutive form we still use, just as we say 'doggy' or 'kitty'. There is also a separate but related Dutch sense of pink meaning a small boat, which shows how the root carried a general idea of 'small thing'. The colour word 'pink' is not the source here; that came along a different route from the flower called a pink. Because the everyday colour 'pink' is so much more common, writers sometimes pause over whether the little finger is spelled 'pinky' or 'pinkie', and both spellings are in fact accepted.

How the word is built

• pink (from Dutch pink: little finger)
• -y (diminutive/familiar suffix)