pincer

• pincher (dated or eggcorn)

From Middle English pynsor, from Old French pinceure, pinchure, from pincier (“to pinch”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪnsəɹ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnsə(ɹ)

pincer (plural pincers)

1. Any object that resembles one half of a pair of pincers.

pincer (third-person singular simple present pincers, present participle pincering, simple past and past participle pincered)

1. (transitive, sometimes figurative) To surround with a pincer attack.
   • 1984, Robert Lamb, Competitive Strategic Management, page 115:

     After considering all frontal counteroffensive alternatives, Heublein rejected them as detrimental to its profits and came up with a brilliant pincering maneuver. It raised the price of Smirnoff by one dollar, effectively preventing segment diffusion, […]

   • 2004, Rex Weyler, Greenpeace:

     The minesweeper and the sea tug now came along either side, pincered the Vega, and seemed to be ushering it toward Moruroa, perhaps attempting to push the ketch inside the 12-mile limit.

• Prince, prince

Inherited from Old French pincier, pincer (“to pinch”).

• IPA^(key): /pɛ̃.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

pincer

1. to pinch (skin)
2. (informal) to pinch (to arrest)
3. (music) to pluck (a stringed instrument)
4. (colloquial) to fancy
   • 2024 May 25, “Couples Erasmus”, in Libération, →ISSN, page 5:

     Je devais accompagner à une soirée une copine espagnole qui en pinçait pour un Irlandais qui parlait danois, ce qui pour nous, à l’époque, était le summum de l’intégration.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

• en pincer

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

• prince

From Vulgar Latin *pinciāre (“to puncture, pinch”).

pincer

1. to pinch

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-c, *-cs, *-ct are modified to z, z, zt. In addition, c becomes ç before an a, o or u to keep the /ts/ sound intact. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• Middle French: pincier, pincer
  • French: pincer
    • → Bavarian: pfitzen
    • → Dutch: pinsen, pitsen
• Norman: pînchi
• → Middle English: pinchen
  • English: pinch

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