[Ads-l] pinky-swear

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 10/6/2018 9:07 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Front page of "The First Church of Springfield Weekly Bulletin" on the
> _Simpsons_:
>
> "Local Boy Sees Heaven
> Pinky Swears It's True"
>
> At first I wondered who Pinky was. Pinky Lee?  Naaaah.
>
> I remember my grandmother doing the linked-pinky thing long ago (ca1957)
> but it indicated a solemn promise rather than an oath of truth. (Close
> enough? I don't think so.)  Definitely she didn't seem to have a word for
> the ritual. You just did it.
>
> My strong impression was that pinky-linkin' went back to her own childhood
> in the 1890s. Or at least to my mother's in the early 1920s.
---

I first noticed this "pinky-promise" gesture in Japanese media (e.g., TV 
dramas, movies) and I do not recall encountering it in my childhood (or 
ever among US adults). When I noticed it among a few 21st century US 
youngsters I assumed it had been adopted from Japanese comics or TV 
cartoons or the like. But a few years ago I guess I heard somebody 
mention it retrospectively  from a little too early (US) -- IIRC maybe 
ca. 1960 -- so I looked it up a little. I found of course "presumably 
from Japan yadda yadda" and further speculation related to the Far East 
... but also a reference in a dictionary of Americanisms from 1860 (just 
a little early for a comfortable import from Japan, I think).

See the Wikipedia page ("Pinky swear"). There is a Japanese-language 
page also.

I have not formed me any strong opinion on the origin of the gesture. 
Maybe some savant knows "for sure"? Maybe it's originally an American 
(or Anglo-) thing which entered Japan from the US (with the black ships, 
or maybe just after WW II)? Maybe it was right at home with native 
Japanese traditions about gangsters et al. chopping off fingers?

--- Doug Wilson

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