[Ads-l] pinky-swear

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Doug Wilson notes that Wikipedia has a pertinent entry.

Pinky swear (Pinky promise)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_swear

The Wikipedia entry cites an 1860 edition of "Dictionary of
Americanisms". This date can be pushed back because the same
information was present in the appendix of the 1848 edition. The
physical gesture is described, but the phrases "pinky swear" and
"pinky promise" do not appear. Also, the alternate spelling "pinkie"
does not appear in the book.

Year: 1848
Book: Dictionary of Americanisms. A Glossary of Words and Phrases,
Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States
Author: John Russell Bartlett (Corresponding Secretary of the American
Ethnological Society and Foreign Corresponding Secretary of the New
York Historical Society)
Section: Appendix
Quote Page 406
Publisher: Bartlett and Welford, New York

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433082311667?urlappend=%3Bseq=440

[Begin excerpt]
PINKY. (Dutch, pink.) The little finger. A very common term in New
York, especially among small children, who, when making a bargain with
each other, are accustomed to confirm it by interlocking the little
finger of each other's right hands and repeating the following
doggerel:

Pinky, pinky, bow-bell,
Whoever tells a lie,
Will sink down to the bad place,
And never rise up again.
[End excerpt]

The OED has an entry for pinkie, adjective and noun.

[Begin excerpt]
2. colloq. (orig. Sc.). The little finger. Also (occasionally): the little toe.
[End excerpt]

The first citation for the "little finger" sense is in 1808. I saw no
discussion of pinkie promises or pinkie swears.

Garson

On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 2:25 PM Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
>
> 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

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