fink

See also: Fink

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɪŋk/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Etymology 1

Unknown; first attested in 1894. A connection to Yiddish as some propose is unlikely.

Suggested origins include:

• German Fink (“finch; frivolous or dissolute person; informer”) as finches are notoriously chatty birds in groups. If so, then Doublet of finch. Compare canary (“informer”).
• Partly from the German theory, a fanciful association by students with the freedom of wild birds as opposed to caged ones.
• The slang name pink for Pinkerton agents and their use as strikebreakers in the 1892 Homestead strike. If the term is from the corporate name, then it is of Scots origin, Pinkerton being from a place near Dunbar, which is from an unrecognized first element (possibly ultimately pre-Celtic substrate) and Old English tun (“enclosure, homestead, etc.”).

Noun

fink (plural finks)

1. (chiefly US, slang) A contemptible person.
2. (chiefly US, slang) An informer.
3. (chiefly US, slang) A strikebreaker.

Synonyms

• (informer): See Thesaurus:informant

Derived terms

• ratfink

Translations

informer

• Czech: informátor (cs) m, informant m, udavač (cs) m
• Portuguese: informante (pt) m or f, delator (pt) m
• Russian: предатель (ru) (predatelʹ), стукач (ru) m (stukač), наушник (ru) (naušnik), доносчик (ru) (donosčik), осведомитель (ru) (osvedomitelʹ), фискал (ru) (fiskal)

strikebreaker

• Bulgarian: стачкоизменник (bg) m (stačkoizmennik)
• Czech: stávkokaz (cs) m
• Italian: crumiro (it) m
• Portuguese: fura-greve (pt) m or f

Verb

fink (third-person singular simple present finks, present participle finking, simple past and past participle finked)

1. (chiefly US, slang) To betray a trust; to inform on.
   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 222:

     “I move that we determine through a thorough investigation whether the new worker is a fink or no; and if he is a fink, let us discover who heʼs finking for!”

Synonyms

• inform, grass up, snitch; See also Thesaurus:rat out

Derived terms

• fink out

Translations

to betray a trust

• Portuguese: dedurar (pt)
• Russian: предавать (ru) (predavatʹ)

Etymology 2

Verb

fink (third-person singular simple present finks, present participle fought, simple past and past participle fought)

1. (dialectal, th-fronting) Pronunciation spelling of think.

Etymology 3

From Afrikaans vink.

Noun

fink (plural finks)

1. (South Africa) Any of several birds in the family Ploceidae native to southern Africa.

Derived terms

• kaffir fink

References

• “fink”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "fink" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• "fink" in the Dictionary of South African English
• “fink”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)

Albanian

Alternative forms

• fing

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *spinga, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pingos (“chaffinch”), identical with Greek σπίγγος (spíngos, “id”), English spink, Old Norse spiki (“kind of bird”). One might also consider a borrowing from Proto-Germanic *finkiz, *finkōn (“finch”), possibly Balkan Gothic.

Noun

fink m (plural finkë, definite finku, definite plural finkët)

1. finch

Related terms

• beng

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• finke

Etymology

From Middle Low German vinke. Akin to English finch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɪŋk/

Noun

fink m (definite singular finken, indefinite plural finker, definite plural finkene)

1. a bird of the family Fringillidae, the finches

Derived terms

• bokfink

References

• “fink” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Middle Low German vinke. Akin to English finch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɪŋk/

Noun

fink m (definite singular finken, indefinite plural finkar, definite plural finkane)

1. a bird of the family Fringillidae, the finches

Derived terms

• bokfink

References

• “fink” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *finkiz

Noun

fink m

1. finch

Swedish

Etymology

From Middle Low German vinke, from Old Saxon *fink, from Proto-Germanic *finkiz.

Noun

fink c

1. a finch (bird)

Declension

Declension of fink

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	fink	finks
	definite	finken	finkens
plural	indefinite	finkar	finkars
	definite	finkarna	finkarnas

Derived terms

• bergfink
• bofink

References

• fink in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• fink in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• fink in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• knif