different between fank vs fink

English

Etymology

From Scottish Gaelic fang.

Noun

fank (plural fanks)

1. A pen for enclosing sheep, mainly in the Scottish Highlands.

Translations

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

Unknown, suggested from Pinkerton agents being used as strikebreakers in the 1892 Homestead strike, while the first known attestation is in the story “Stumpy” and Other Interesting People by George Ade published on the 17th of March 1894 in the Chicago Record in his column Stories of the Streets and of the Town, then criminal slang a local court needs explanation for:

Attorney—“Do you know this plaintiff? What is his reputation; what do people say about him?”

Witness—“Everybody that's on to him says he's a fink.”

Court—“A wh-a-a-at?”

Attorney—"Be somewhat more explicit, Mr. Carroll.”

Witness—“You know what I mean; he's a stiff, a skate. He drinks and never comes up. He's always layin' to make a touch, too. I know that boy like a book.”

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

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.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• fink out

Translations

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.

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–present.
• 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 ??????? (spíngos, “id”), English spink, Old Norse spiki (“kind of bird”). One might also consider a borrowing from Proto-Germanic *finkiz, *fink?n (“finch”), possibly Balkan Gothic.

Noun

fink m (indefinite plural finkë, definite singular 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): /f??k/

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): /f??k/

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

Noun

fink m

1. finch

Swedish

Noun

fink c

1. a finch (bird)

Declension

Derived terms

• bergfink
• bofink

References

• fink in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

Anagrams

• knif