Pinkerton
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English
Etymology
Habitational surname from a place near Dunbar, from an unexplained first element + Old English tūn (“enclosure”). This surname is well established in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Proper noun
Pinkerton (plural Pinkertons)
- A habitational surname from Old English.
Statistics
- According to the 2010 United States Census, Pinkerton is the 4193rd most common surname in the United States, belonging to 8446 individuals. Pinkerton is most common among White (90.99%) individuals.
Noun
Pinkerton (plural Pinkertons)
- (dated, countable) An operative employed by the Pinkerton National Detective Agency founded by Allan Pinkerton (1819–1884).
- 1912, Alexander Berkman, chapter 6, in Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist:
- My heart wells up in admiration of the man, as I think of his participation in the memorable struggle of Homestead. He fought the Pinkertons, the myrmidons of Capital.
- 1950 September 4, “Kiss the Donkey”, in Time:
- He joined the pickets in the bloody Homestead steel strike of 1892, and actually went so far as to jostle a Pinkerton.
Derived terms
Further reading
- Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Pinkerton”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.