# etymology/history of pinwheel (yes its really this boring) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-history-of-pinwheel-yes-its-really-this-boring/363677 "2006-07-08T22:33:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friendlessboob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@friendlessboob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friendlessboob)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-history-of-pinwheel-yes-its-really-this-boring/363677/1 "2006-07-08T22:33:40Z")
So I googled and wikipedia’d and webstered and I am still nowhere. Are pinwheels (the toy windmill thing) called pinwheels becasue they are in effect a wheel revolving around a pin, or is it some other reason? That is what I told my daughter, then realized I was not sure if it was true, so I told her “lets look it up!”…so now I want to die…please someone…anyone…why do we funking call funking pinwheels pinwheels? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-history-of-pinwheel-yes-its-really-this-boring/363677/2 "2006-07-08T23:29:50Z")
I was going to say it has to be the pin, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s a windmill made by pinning a cut and folded piece of paper to a stick, with a pin. Pin wheel. Except that there’s such a thing as a pinwheel in striking clocks - it’s a bit like a hurdy gurdy drum where pins lift the striking hammer as it rotates - apparently this usage is quite old. I wouldn’t be at all surprised then, if there are in fact two completely unrelated etymologies here - pinwheel windmill because it is a wheel pinned to a stick, and clock pinwheel that is a wheel studded with pins. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-history-of-pinwheel-yes-its-really-this-boring/363677/3 "2006-07-08T23:48:03Z")
[Pin](http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=pin&use1913=on&use1828=on) at Webster’s Revised, 1913 and 1828 contains this in the 1913 edition: > [@](#): > > – Pin wheel. (a) A contrate wheel in which the cogs are cylindrical pins. (b) (Fireworks) A small coil which revolves on a common pin and makes a wheel of yellow or colored fire. \<– a toy with lightweight, usually brightly colored vanes, as of plastic, which revolve on a pin at the end of a stick, when acted on by a wind –\> There’s nothing on the toy in the 1828 edition. [Pin](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=p&p=17) at Online Etymology Dictionary contains this: > [@](#): > > Pinwheel is from 1696, “a wheel in the striking train of a clock in which pins are fixed to lift the hammer;” fireworks sense is from 1869. I’m not finding who invented the pinwheel toy, or when it was invented. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-history-of-pinwheel-yes-its-really-this-boring/363677/4 "2006-07-09T00:26:13Z")
Lady arrives at the Pearly Gates. LADY: Is my husband here? He died before me. ST. PETER: What was his name? LADY: Jones. ST. PETER: We’ve got a lot of Joneses here. What was his first name? LADY: John. ST. PETER: We’ve got a lot of John Joneses here too. Can you remember anything else? Something, you know, personal? LADY: [thinks] . . . Well, he said he would turn over in his grave if I ever betrayed his memory. ST. PETER: Oh, you mean “Pinwheel” Jones! ---
**Author:** ![friendlessboob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@friendlessboob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friendlessboob)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-history-of-pinwheel-yes-its-really-this-boring/363677/5 "2006-07-09T04:00:19Z")
thanks, that helps, and also makes it clear that while i am fairly inept, I am at least partially ept ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-history-of-pinwheel-yes-its-really-this-boring/363677/6 "2006-07-09T12:16:18Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > I’m not finding who invented the pinwheel toy, or when it was invented. Probably because the manufactured toy was possibly just an outgrowth of what kids had been making for years: From the OED: > [@](#): > > 1869 Atlantic Monthly Mar. 281/2 Boys and girls…will sometimes contrive what they call pin-wheelsbits of stick crossed, tipped with little squares of paper, and then attached to another stick with a large pin, so that they will whirl around when carried swiftly against a breeze.