to pin

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

There is a good deal of serious scholarship on prison slang and criminal argot. Not all words belong in the OED, of course.

------Original Message------
From: David A. Daniel
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Sent: Aug 25, 2008 10:18 AM
Subject: [ADS-L] to pin

Also, while I'm at it, I recently came across this previously unknown (to
me) meaning of "to pin". I have already checked with Mr. Sheidlower and it
apparently was unknown to the OED as well.

Author: Susanna Moore. Book: The Big Girls (takes place in a women's
prison). Vintage Books, trade paper, 224 pgs, 2008.

>From page 66:
"Last night, Wanda asked me to pin for her and Jo, and I was proud to do it.
...All I had to do last night was keep Officer Molina busy for as long as I
could..."

>From context, it seemed to mean "to run interference for" or "to help out by
creating a distraction" or "to take attention away from".

I wrote to Susanna Moore and asked her about the meaning and if perhaps it
was prison jargon. She replied: "That is exactly what to pin means. To
cover, or distract. A prison word, and probably a street word, too."

She further wrote: "I don't know if you have read my earlier book, In the
Cut, but the heroine, Franny, is a linguist and teacher, compiling a book of
street slang. It might be of interest to you." Am passing this latter along
in case it is of interest to anyone out there.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org