different between babbitt vs pink

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?bæb?t/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /?bæb?t/
• Rhymes: -æb?t
• Hyphenation: bab?bitt

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Babbitt, the surname of the American inventor Isaac Babbitt (1799–1862) who invented the alloy.

The verb is derived from the noun.

Noun

babbitt (countable and uncountable, plural babbitts)

1. Short for babbitt metal, Babbitt metal (“a soft white alloy of variable composition (for example, nine parts of tin to one of copper, or fifty parts of tin to five of antimony and one of copper) used in bearings to diminish friction”).

   Synonyms: (rare) Babbitt's metal, bearing metal

Alternative forms

• babbit (nonstandard)

Translations

Verb

babbitt (third-person singular simple present babbitts, present participle babbitting, simple past and past participle babbitted)

1. (transitive) To line (something) with babbitt metal to reduce friction.

Alternative forms

• babbit (nonstandard)

Translations

Etymology 2

From Babbitt, the surname of George Babbitt, the title character of the novel Babbitt (1922) by the American author Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951). The word was also popularized by the George (1898–1937) and Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) song “The Babbitt and the Bromide”, first featured in the 1927 musical Funny Face and later in the film Ziegfeld Follies (1945).

Noun

babbitt (plural babbitts)

1. (US, dated) Alternative letter-case form of Babbitt (“a person who subscribes complacently to materialistic middle-class ideals”)
   • 1930 The Literary digest, Volume 105, Funk and Wagnalls, p.21

     One speaks of a babbitt habit, a babbitt era. Nothing is more true. America recognized itself in Babbitt, it demurred, but it also admired.

   • [2002 Tamkang review, Volume 33, Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences, p.158

     [...] a "babbitt" is a person full of self-confident bluster who is nevertheless a narrowminded philistine and a hypocrite.]

   • 2003 William Hyland, George Gershwin: a new biography, Greenwood Publishing Group, p.116

     Ira relished telling the story that Fred Astaire took him aside and said he knew what a babbitt was, but what was a bromide?

Derived terms

• babbittry, Babbittry

Translations

Notes

References

Further reading

• babbitt (alloy) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Babbitt (novel) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• babbitt in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: p?ngk, IPA^(key): /p??k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /p??k/, [p???k]
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

Unknown. Some lexicographers suggest comparison to regional German Pinke (“minnow; small salmon”), but this is not widely accepted.

Noun

pink (plural pinks)

1. (regional) The common minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus. [from 15th c.]
2. (regional) A young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, before it becomes a smolt; a parr. [from 17th c.]

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Middle Dutch pincke.

Noun

pink (plural pinks)

1. (now historical) A narrow boat. [from 15th c.]

Etymology 3

Probably from Dutch pingelen (“to do fine needlework”) or Low German [Term?]; compare Low German pinken (“hit, peck”) and Pinke (“big needle”).

Verb

pink (third-person singular simple present pinks, present participle pinking, simple past and past participle pinked)

1. To decorate a piece of clothing or fabric by adding holes or by scalloping the fringe.
2. To prick with a sword.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, page 642:

     ‘Pugh!’ says she, ‘you have pinked a man in a duel, that's all.’
3. To wound by irony, criticism, or ridicule.
4. To choose; to cull; to pick out.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Herbert to this entry?)

Noun

pink (plural pinks)

1. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) A stab.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Grose to this entry?)

Etymology 4

Origin uncertain; perhaps from Dutch pincken (“blink”) or the English verb pink from the same source (Etymology 6, below). Perhaps from the notion of the petals being pinked (Etymology 3, above).

Noun

pink (plural pinks)

1. Any of various flowers in the genus Dianthus, sometimes called carnations. [from 16th c.]

2. (dated) A perfect example; excellence, perfection; the embodiment of some quality. [from 16th c.]
3. The colour of this flower, between red and white; pale red. [from 17th c.]

4. Hunting pink; scarlet, as worn by hunters. [from 18th c.]
   • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin 2013, page 23:

     I had taken it for granted that there would be people ‘in pink’, but these enormous confident strangers overwhelmed me with the visible authenticity of their brick-red coats.

   • 1986, Michael J. O'Shea, James Joyce and Heraldry, SUNY, page 69:

     it is interesting to note the curious legend that the pink of the hunting field is not due to any optical advantage but to an entirely different reason.

5. (snooker) One of the colour balls used in snooker, coloured pink, with a value of 6 points. [from 19th c.]

6. (slang) An unlettered and uncultured, but relatively prosperous, member of the middle classes; compare Babbitt, bourgeoisie.
7. Alternative form of pinko
8. (slang) The vagina or vulva.

Translations

Adjective

pink (comparative pinker, superlative pinkest)

1. Having a colour between red and white; pale red.
2. Of a fox-hunter's jacket: scarlet.
3. Having conjunctivitis.
4. (obsolete) By comparison to red (communist), describing someone who sympathizes with the ideals of communism without actually being a Russian-style communist: a pinko.
5. (informal) Relating to women or girls.

6. (informal) Relating to homosexuals as a group within society.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

pink (third-person singular simple present pinks, present participle pinking, simple past and past participle pinked)

1. (intransitive) To become pink in color, to redden.
2. (transitive) To turn (something) pink.
   • 1961, Tennessee Williams, The Night of the Iguana, New Directions Publishing, 2009, Act II, page 46, [2]

     They are all nearly nude, pinked and bronzed by the sun.

   • 1985, Carl Sagan, Contact, Simon & Schuster, 1997, Chapter 3, page 57, [3]

     The rabbits, still lining the roadside, but now pinked by dawn, craned their necks to follow her departure.

3. (transitive) To turn (a topaz or other gemstone) pink by the application of heat.

See also

• (reds) red; blood red, brick red, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, carnation, cerise, cherry, cherry red, Chinese red, cinnabar, claret, crimson, damask, fire brick, fire engine red, flame, flamingo, fuchsia, garnet, geranium, gules, hot pink, incarnadine, Indian red, magenta, maroon, misty rose, nacarat, oxblood, pillar-box red, pink, Pompeian red, poppy, raspberry, red violet, rose, rouge, ruby, ruddy, salmon, sanguine, scarlet, shocking pink, stammel, strawberry, Turkey red, Venetian red, vermillion, vinaceous, vinous, violet red, wine ^{(Category: en:Reds)}

Etymology 5

Onomatopoeic.

Verb

pink (third-person singular simple present pinks, present participle pinking, simple past and past participle pinked)

1. Of a motor car, to emit a high "pinking" noise, usually as a result of ill-set ignition timing for the fuel used (in a spark ignition engine).
2. Of a musical instrument, to sound a very high-pitched, short note.

Translations

Etymology 6

Borrowed from Dutch pinken.

Verb

pink (third-person singular simple present pinks, present participle pinking, simple past and past participle pinked)

1. (obsolete) To wink; to blink.

Adjective

pink (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Half-shut; winking.

Derived terms

• pinkeye

Etymology 7

Unknown. Attested from the late 15th century.

Noun

pink (uncountable)

1. (historical) Any of various lake pigments or dyes in yellow, yellowish green, or brown shades made with plant coloring and a metallic oxide base.

References

Chuukese

Etymology

Borrowed from English pink.

Adjective

pink

1. pink coloured

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??k/
• Hyphenation: pink
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

Noun

pink m (plural pinken, diminutive pinkje n)

1. pinkie (little finger)

Etymology 2

Unknown.

Noun

pink m (plural pinken, diminutive pinkje n)

1. one-year-old calf, a bovine yearling

Etymology 3

Unknown.

Noun

pink m (plural pinken, diminutive pinkje n)

1. a pink (historic coastal fishing boat with one mast, often landed on beaches)

Derived terms

• ? English: pink
• ? French: pinque
  • ? Catalan: pinc
• ? Italian: pinco
• ? Portuguese: pinque

See also

• bij de pinken zijn

Anagrams

• knip

Estonian

Etymology

From Middle Low German benk, most likely influenced by Swedish bänk.

Noun

pink (genitive pingi, partitive pinki)

1. bench

Declension

German

Etymology

Borrowed from English pink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??k/
• Hyphenation: pink

Adjective

pink (comparative pinker, superlative am pinksten)

1. coloured in a strong shade of pink
   • 2009, Mark Billingham (English text) and Isabella Bruckmaier (translated from English into German), Das Blut der Opfer. Ein Inspector-Thorne-Roman, Goldmann:

     Die unglaublich langen Beine des Mädchens wurden durch Strümpfe und ein pink Tutu betont.

Usage notes

• For paler shades, German does not use pink but rosa.
• Pink is generally declined like a normal adjective: eine pinke Jacke (“a pink jacket”). Some prescriptive grammars and dictionaries like Duden state that declined forms are colloquial and that pink should be invariable (eine pink Jacke). However, such usage is utterly rare and would even strike a great deal of native speakers as ungrammatical. See the various corpora at www.dwds.de, which include hundreds of attestations for the declined forms, but at most a handful for invariable use in attributive position.

Declension

References

• “pink” in Duden online
• “pink” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Swedish

Noun

pink n (uncountable)

1. (slang) pee

Declension

See also

• pinka

Anagrams

• knip