pin

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

pin

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: pĭn, IPA^(key): /pɪn/,

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪn
• Homophone: pen (pin-pen merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English pinne, from Old English pinn (“pin, peg, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *pinnaz, *pinnō, *pint- (“protruding point, peak, peg, pin, nail”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- (“protruding object, pointed peg, nail, edge”). Related to pen (“enclosure”).

Cognate with Dutch pin (“peg, pin”), Low German pin, pinne (“pin, point, nail, peg”), German Pinn, Pinne (“pin, tack, peg”), Bavarian Pfonzer, Pfunzer (“sharpened point”), Danish pind (“pin, pointed stick”), Norwegian pinn (“stick”), Swedish pinne (“peg, rod, stick”), Icelandic pinni (“pin”). More at pintle.

No relation to classical Latin pinna (“fin, flipper, wing-like appendage, wing, feather”), which was extended to mean "ridge, peak, point" (compare pinnacle), and often confused with Latin penna (“wing, feather”). More at feather and pen (Etymology 3).

Noun

pin (plural pins)

1. A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     With pins of adamant / And chains they made all fast.

2. A small nail with a head and a sharp point.
3. A cylinder often of wood or metal used to fasten or as a bearing between two parts.

   Pull the pin out of the grenade before throwing it at the enemy.

5. (wrestling, professional wrestling) The victory condition of holding the opponent's shoulders on the wrestling mat for a prescribed period of time.
6. A slender object specially designed for use in a specific game or sport, such as skittles or bowling.
8. (informal, in the plural) A leg.

   I'm not so good on my pins these days.

9. (electricity) Any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector.

   The UK standard connector for domestic mains electricity has three pins.

10. A piece of jewellery that is attached to clothing with a pin.
12. (US) A simple accessory that can be attached to clothing with a pin or fastener, often round and bearing a design, logo or message, and used for decoration, identification or to show political affiliation, etc.

    Synonyms: lapel pin, badge

13. (chess) Either a scenario in which moving a lesser piece to escape from attack would expose a more valuable piece to being taken instead, or one where moving a piece is impossible as it would place the king in check.
14. (golf) The flagstick: the flag-bearing pole which marks the location of a hole
15. (curling) The spot at the exact centre of the house (the target area)

    The shot landed right on the pin.

16. (archery) The spot at the exact centre of the target, originally a literal pin that fastened the target in place.
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv:

      For kings are clouts that euery man ſhoots at,
      Our Crowne the pin that thouſands ſeeke to cleaue.

    • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      the very pin of his heart cleft

17. (obsolete) A mood, a state of being.
    • c. 1631–1633 (first performance), [John Clavell], edited by John Henry Pyle Pafford and W[alter] W[ilson] Greg, The Soddered Citizen (The Malone Society Reprints; 82), London: or the Malone Society by John Johnson at the Oxford University Press, published 1936, →OCLC, Act II, scene v, folio 14^a, page 45, lines 1030–1032:

      Hee sett Promethius, on a merrye pynn, / Whoe dranke soe devillishly, that there he gott / A terrible heartburninge, […]

    • 1653, Henry More, An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: Roger Daniel, , →OCLC:

      he had made the sign of the Cross on his head; for he was then on a merry pin and full of jearing

18. One of a row of pegs in the side of an ancient drinking cup to mark how much each person should drink.
19. (medicine, obsolete) Caligo.
    • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      Blind with the pin and web

20. A thing of small value; a trifle.
    • 1712 February 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, February 7, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 295; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

      He […] did not care a pin for her.

      The spelling has been modernized.

21. A peg in musical instruments for increasing or relaxing the tension of the strings.
22. (engineering) A short shaft, sometimes forming a bolt, a part of which serves as a journal.
23. The tenon of a dovetail joint.
24. (UK, brewing) A size of brewery cask, equal to half a firkin, or eighth of a barrel.
    • 1978, Hugh Verity, chapter 2, in We landed by moonlight, Manchester: Crécy Publishing, →ISBN, page 22=:

      Our ground crew were lodged in the main station, but they came to the cottage for a party when operations for the night had been cancelled and we had a new ‘gong’ (decoration) to celebrate. On these occasions we always installed a pin of bitter.

25. (informal) A pinball machine.

    I spent most of my time in the arcade playing pins.

    • 1949, Billboard, volume 61, page 82:

      Attracted by game operation, many invested heavily in pins and rolldowns prior to last spring.

26. (locksmithing) A small cylindrical object which blocks the rotation of a pin-tumbler lock when the incorrect key is inserted.
27. (bodybuilding, slang) An injection of PEDs.

Synonyms

• (small nail): nail, tack
• (cylinder of wood or metal): peg
• (games): skittle
• (jewellery fastened with a pin): brooch

Hyponyms

• (jewellery fastened with a pin): breastpin
• (chess): absolute pin, relative pin, partial pin

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Norwegian Nynorsk: pins
• → Polish: pin
• → Spanish: pin
• → Swahili: pini
• → Swedish: pin, pins

Translations

See also

• needle

Verb

pin (third-person singular simple present pins, present participle pinning, simple past and past participle pinned)

1. (often followed by a preposition such as "to" or "on") To fasten or attach (something) with a pin.
2. (chess, usually passive voice) To cause (a piece) to be in a pin.
4. (wrestling) To pin down (someone).

   He pinned his opponent on the mat.

5. To enclose; to confine; to pen; to pound.
6. (computing, graphical user interface, transitive) To attach (an icon, application, message etc.) to another item so that it persists.

   Antonym: unpin

   to pin a folder to the taskbar

7. (programming, transitive) To fix (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it cannot be modified.

   Antonym: unpin

   When marshaling data, the interop marshaler can copy or pin the data being marshaled.

   • 2012, Ian Griffiths, Programming C# 5.0, page 244:

     […] you can use the GCHandle class mentioned earlier to pin a heap block until you explicitly unpin it.

8. (transitive) To cause an analog gauge to reach the stop pin at the high end of the range.

   Synonym: peg

   • 1979, Al Greenwood, Lou Gramm, “Rev on the Red Line”, in Head Games:

     Now I need to pin those needles.

9. (bodybuilding, slang, transitive, intransitive) To inject for performance enhancement.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

pin (third-person singular simple present pins, present participle pinning, simple past and past participle pinned)

1. Alternative form of peen

Anagrams

• NIP, NPI, Nip, nip

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from English pin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian)

Noun

pin m (plural pins)

1. (electronics) lead
2. pin (ornament)

Chuukese

Adjective

pin

1. holy

Synonyms

• fen

Cimbrian

Verb

pin

1. first-person singular present indicative of zèinan: am

Cornish

Noun

pin f (singulative pinen)

1. pines

Synonyms

• sab

Danish

Verb

pin

1. imperative of pine

Dutch

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch pinne, from Old Dutch *pinna, from Proto-West Germanic *pinnā, of obscure origin. Cognate with English pin, Low German pin, pinne (“pin, point, nail, peg”), German Pinn, Pinne (“pin, tack, peg”), Bavarian Pfonzer, Pfunzer (“sharpened point”), Danish pind (“pin, pointed stick”), Norwegian pinn (“stick”), Swedish pinne (“peg, rod, stick”), Icelandic pinni (“pin”).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪn
• IPA^(key): /pɪn/

Noun

pin f (plural pinnen, diminutive pinnetje n)

1. peg, pin

Descendants

• → Aukan: pina
• ⇒ Dutch: pintje (diminutive form)
  • → Munsee: piinch

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of persoonlijk identificatienummer (“personal identification number”).

Noun

pin m or n (plural pins, diminutive pinnetje n)

1. PIN (A number used to confirm an individual's identity, e.g. when using an ATM or a mobile phone, or when making payment using a credit card or debit card)

Derived terms

• pincode
• pinkassa
• pinnen

Etymology 3

Verb

pin

1. inflection of pinnen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Anagrams

• nip

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French pin, from Latin pīnus, ultimately from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *poi- (“sap, juice”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛ̃/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophones: pain, pains, peins, peint, peints, pins

Noun

pin m (plural pins)

1. pine, pine tree

Derived terms

• noix de pin
• pin de Briançon
• pomme de pin

Further reading

• “pin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin pīnus.

Noun

pin m (plural pins)

1. pine tree

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch pin, from Proto-Germanic *pinnaz *pinnaz, *pinnō, *pint- (“protruding point, peak, peg, pin, nail”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- 'protruding object, pointed peg, nail, edge'.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: pin

Noun

pin

1. pin
   1. (colloquial) a needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.

      Synonym: peniti

   2. a slender object specially designed for use in a specific game or sport, such as skittles or bowling.
2. (colloquial) peg.

   Synonym: pasak

Further reading

• “pin” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Japanese

Romanization

pin

1. Rōmaji transcription of ピン

Kapampangan

Particle

pin

1. a particle used to indicate affirmation

   Wapin.

   I agree.

   Istu yapin.

   it's indeed correct.

   Ikapin.

   Yeah, it's you.

Latvian

Verb

pin

1. inflection of pīt:
   1. second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. third-person plural present indicative
   3. second-person singular imperative
2. (with the particle lai) third-person singular imperative of pīt
3. (with the particle lai) third-person plural imperative of pīt

Mandarin

Romanization

pin

1. Nonstandard spelling of pīn.
2. Nonstandard spelling of pín.
3. Nonstandard spelling of pǐn.
4. Nonstandard spelling of pìn.

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Mapudungun

Verb

pin (Raguileo spelling)

1. To say
2. To tell (a story).
3. first-person singular realis form of pin

Synonyms

• (tell a story): nvxamyen

Ojibwe

Noun

pin anim (plural piniig, diminutive piniins, locative piniing, pejorative pinish)

1. potato

Papantla Totonac

Noun

pin inan

1. chili. chili pepper.

References

• Crescencio García Ramos, Diccionario Básico Totonaco-Español Español-Totonaco (Xalapa, Academia Veracruzana de las Lenguas Indígenas, 2007)

Piedmontese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /piŋ/

Noun

pin m

1. pine

Derived terms

• pinera f

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

pin

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Borrowed from English pin, from Middle English pinne, from Old English pinn, from Proto-Germanic *pinnaz, *pinnō, *pint-, from Proto-Indo-European *bend-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pin/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -in
• Syllabification: pin
• Homophone: PIN

Noun

pin m inan

1. (electricity) lead, pin (any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector)

Declension

Further reading

• pin in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Rawang

Etymology

Compare Chinese 兵 (bīng).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʰin˧/

Noun

pin

1. army.
2. soldier.

Synonyms

• (army): dap, pindap, sìl
• (soldier): pinla, sìlsè

Romanian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin pīnus, ultimately from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *poi- (“sap, juice”).

Noun

pin m (plural pini)

1. pine

Declension

See also

• brad

Romansch

Alternative forms

• pign (Rumantsch Grischun)
• pégn (Sursilvan)
• pegn (Sutsilvan, Surmiran)

Etymology

From Latin pīnus.

Noun

pin m

1. (Puter, Vallader) spruce, fir

Synonyms

• (spruce): (Vallader) petsch

Seta

Noun

pin

1. woman

References

• transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66

Spanish

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:

pin

Wikipedia ^es

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpin/
• Rhymes: -in
• Syllabification: pin

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English pin.

Noun

pin m (plural pines)

1. pin, lapel pin, badge

   Synonym: insignia

2. (electricity) pin (any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English PIN, acronym of personal identification number.

Alternative forms

• PIN

Noun

pin m (plural pines)

1. PIN, PIN number

   Synonym: número pin

Further reading

• “pin”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Etymology 1

Clipping of pinsam, with the same meaning.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiːn/

Adjective

pin (comparative mer pin, superlative mest pin)

1. (colloquial) embarrassing

   Så jäkla pin asså!

   So f--ing embarrassing!

Declension

Invariable, not used in the definite form.

Etymology 2

From pina.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiːn/

Noun

pin

1. (mostly in (reference to) the phrase below) pain, torment

Derived terms

• vill man vara fin får man lida pin

Adverb

pin (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) very, really, super-

   Synonyms: jätte-, väldigt

Derived terms

• på pin kiv
• pinfull
• pinfärsk
• pinkär

Etymology 3

Borrowed from English pin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪn/

Noun

pin n

1. Alternative form of pins

Usage notes

The form with -s is recommended since it's easier to decline in Swedish.

References

• pin in Nationalencyklopedin (needs an authorization fee).

Turkish

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish پین (pin), borrowed from a dialectal form of Armenian բույն (buyn, “nest”).

Noun

pin (definite accusative pini, plural pinler)

1. (dialectal) coop for poultry

Declension

Synonyms

• kümes

References

• Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1971–1979) “բոյն”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, Yerevan: University Press
• “pin”, in Türkiye'de halk ağzından derleme sözlüğü [Compilation Dictionary of Popular Speech in Turkey] (in Turkish), Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu, 1963–1982

Vietnamese

Etymology

Borrowed from French pile.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key):
• (Huế) IPA^(key):
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Noun

(classifier cục) pin

1. a battery
2. the amount of electricity that a battery holds

   Điện thoại tao hết pin rồi.

   My phone is dead.

   (literally, “My phone has run out of "battery".”)

Derived terms

• đèn pin (“torch, flashlight”)

Welsh

Etymology 1

From Latin pīnus (compare Middle Irish pín).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /piːn/
• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophone: p'un (“which one?”) (South Wales)

Noun

pin m or m pl (uncountable)

1. pine (tree)
2. pine (wood)

Usage notes

Modern Welsh orthography prefers the form pin to the superseded form pîn.

Synonyms

• pinwydd f pl

Derived terms

• pinafal, afal pin (“pineapple”)

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɪn/

Noun

pin m (plural pinnau)

1. Dated spelling of pìn.

Mutation

References

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “pin”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

West Makian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pin̪/

Noun

pin

1. bee

References

• Clemens Voorhoeve (1982) The Makian languages and their neighbours‎, Pacific linguistics

Yapese

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *papine, from Proto-Austronesian *bahi (“woman”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɪn/

Noun

pin

1. woman

Yoruba

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k͡pĩ̄/

Verb

pin

1. to terminate; to come to an end

   Ọ̀nà ti pin ― The road has ended

Derived terms

• òpin (“end”)

Etymology 2

Cognate with Igala kpẹ́

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k͡pĩ́/

Verb

pín

1. to divide

   O fẹ́ tọ́ ọ wò àbí? Màá pín in sí méjì. ― Do you want to taste it? I'll divide it in two.

2. to share out; to distribute

   Àwọn apẹja pín èyí tí wọ́n pa fún gbogbo abúlé ― The fishermen shared their catch with the village

Derived terms

• ìpínkiri (“distribution”)
• ìpín (“portion; share”)