Klarinet Archive - Posting 000104.txt from 2005/06

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Personal prejudice
Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 14:47:59 -0400


Tony Pay wrote:
> What is this 'pinkie' thing, anyway?

Ormond Montoya wrote,
>American Heritage Dictionary says that "pin" and
>"pink" are variants of an obsolete word that once
>meant "little finger". The origin of this usage
>(according to the dictionary) is obscure and probably
>unrelated to the modern meaning of color.
>
>The dictionary explicitly lists "pinkie" as the diminutive
>of "pin" or pink".

Shadow Cat informs me that a pinkie is also a newborn baby mouse. I don't
want to know why she knows this.

I think the real reason we say "pinkie" is because we have to call that
finger *something* and "little finger" doesn't make sense for many of us
whose "little" fingers are longer than our thumbs. Of course, most
people's pinkies aren't pink, so that explanation doesn't make sense,
either; but nevertheless, there's a curiously satisfying symmetry to
calling the two short, outside fingers by names that acknowledge their
outsiderness: Thumb, index finger, social finger, ring finger and pinkie.

I call a clarinet a horn sometimes, btw, and I don't see what's supposed to
be so illiterate about that. It's at least equally illiterate to call
something a horn that's made of brass. Ever seen a French horn made of
horn?

Lelia Loban

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