"This may pinch a little"

[sagehen]

>I shall probably be chided for redundancy, but I have
>seen no comment on the trend over the past decade or so among medical
>personnel (phlebotomists, nurses, dentists, etc.) in the northeast to warn
>a patient of the imminent insertion of a hypodermic needle in the arm,
>gums, or
>elsewhere with the words, "This may pinch a little."
>Of course it isn't going to pinch, which means 'grip or seize between two
>fingers, jaws of a pair of pliers,' 'cause pain using a constricting
>force,' and the like: the proper word is prick, but that is avoided
>because it is the slang word for 'penis.' A more accurate euphemism might
>be stick, but I
>have never heard that.
>Perhaps observers in other parts of the US have encountered other euphemisms.
>I haven't checked every dictionary, but those newer
>ones I looked in do not cover this sense.
>L. Urdang
>Old Lyme, CT
~<~<~<~<~<~<~<
This is very much older than the past decade or so.  I heard it as a child
before WWII.  I assumed then that it was meant to liken the minor pain to
one that any child would be familiar with: that of being pinched.  Of
course it seemed increasingly absurd as I got older and kept hearing it
addressed to older & older adults (e.g., me).  "Prick" might well be
avoided for the reasons you give, but  "this'll hurt, but it'll be quick"
would serve the purpose.
A. Murie