pinch, prick, etc

[Jonathan Lighter]

Interestingly enough, OED has entries for *two* relevant intransitive "pricks," back to the 14th C., but darned few of 'em.

Regardless, I agree with sagehen that the meaning of "pinch" under discussion never struck me as odd in any way.  I can't even be sure when or where I first heard it.  "This may pinch" = "This may affect you with a pinching sort of pain."

OED also lists a few instrans. "pinches" back to the 17th C., though not, oddly enough, with the present meaning.

JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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At 11:14 AM -0700 6/22/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Hi, Larry. Cf. "My new shoes pinch," perh. semiconsciously
>interpreted as they "hurt." In a similar context, "The heel
>pinches." Undoubtedly (I mean, "undoubtably," of course) some
>people may think that means my heel rather than the heel of the
>shoe. So "pinch" comes to mean "hurt as though being pinched."

True, but I still maintain that "This may pinch a little" can only
refer to the effect on me, not to what the doctor or whoever is
doing, and that "This may prick a little" doesn't make sense to me in
this context, since the needle is definitely going in, the only
question being whether and to what degree it will hurt me when it
does. "I'm going to prick you a little now" would be possible here
(although it wouldn't be very nice), but not "This may prick", while
"pinch" or "sting" can be used for either the action or the effect.
YMMV, of course.

>Anyway, my dentist also says, "This may sting a little."
>
Yes, that's what I'm used to hearing. And I don't see it as a
euphemism, since the needle for the novocain (or whatever they now
use that we still call novocain even though it isn't) really does
feel like an insect sting.

L

>
>urdang wrote:
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>
>I shall probably be chided for redundancy, but I have=20
>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=20
>elsewhere with the words, "This may pinch a little."=20
>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=20
>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=20
>ones I looked in do not cover this sense.
>L. Urdang
>Old Lyme, CT
>
>
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