# Etymology of "Fink"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557 "2011-10-23T18:12:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/1 "2011-10-23T18:12:53Z")
As I understand it, fink is both a noun and a verb: -(Noun): a disreputable, untrustworthy person -(Verb): to “rat out someone”, to use confidential information carelessly I believe the word to be of yiddish origin-but in checking the standard reference (Leo Rosten, “The Joys of Yiddish”, 1967), there is no entry at all for “fink”. So where did it come from?🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/2 "2011-10-23T18:31:39Z")
I don’t know, but I went to school with a girl with the last name of Fink. She didn’t need any further nicknames. \>.\< ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/3 "2011-10-23T18:33:05Z")
Moved Cafe Society --\> GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/4 "2011-10-23T18:34:29Z")
It also has a noun meaning related to the verb: an informer. My completely unfounded WAG is that it is from the German (and presumably also Yiddish) _Fink_, meaning finch, i.e., one who “sings.” ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/5 "2011-10-23T18:39:24Z")
Sounds about right. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/6 "2011-10-23T18:41:54Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > It also has a noun meaning related to the verb: an informer. My completely unfounded WAG is that it is from the German (and presumably also Yiddish) _Fink_, meaning finch, i.e., one who “sings.” There are a couple of theories. One relates it, as you say, to the German word for finch. The other, which IMO may be a bit more far-fetched, is that it derived from the Pinkerton agents used against organized labor in the struggles at the end of the 19th century. From [Dictionary.com.](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fink) > [@](#): > > Origin: 1900–05, Americanism; compared with German Fink literally, finch, colloquial epithet for an undesirable person, especially an untidy or loose-living one (often in compounds, as Duckfink sycophant, Schmierfink untidy writer); but the transmission of this word to E and the range of meanings of the E word have not been clarified fully > [@](#): > > 1902, of uncertain origin, possibly from Ger. Fink “a frivolous or dissolute person,” originally “finch,” which also gave it another sense of “informer” (cf. stool pigeon). The other theory traces it to Pinks, short for Pinkerton agents, the private police force hired to break up the 1892 Homestead strike. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/7 "2011-10-23T19:13:22Z")
There are theories, but no one has currently found a smoking gun–Hell, not even one that is still warm. The oldest meaning(a contemptible offensive, or unreliable person) found in print is > [@Historical Dictionary of American Slang](#): > > 1. George Ade, _Chicago Stories_. Everybody that’s on to him says he’s a fink…You know what I mean; he’s a stiff, a skate. He drinks and never come up. He’s always layin’ to make a touch, too. The next cite in print is 1902-3, meaning a betrayer of associates, an informer or stool pigeon > [@George Ade](#): > > in _People You Know_. Any one who goes against the Faculty single-handed is a fink. The strike breaker meaning only appears in print(so far) in 1917. The speculation that it originated in the famous Homestead¶ strike of 1892 is currently unsupported. The criminal sense(informer) appears first in print in 1925. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/8 "2011-10-23T19:20:26Z")
Thanks for the replies. My Dad used the word frequently, but it seems to have (largely) died out . I haven’t heard it in years. “Mad Magazine” used it frequently, but that was a long time ago. Still, I always thoght it sounded neat! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/9 "2011-10-23T19:29:20Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Thanks for the replies. > My Dad used the word frequently, but it seems to have (largely) died out . > I haven’t heard it in years. “Mad Magazine” used it frequently, but that was a long time ago. > Still, I always thoght it sounded neat! Your dad’s probably also of that age that saw “Ratfink” dolls, shirts and cars popularized by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/10 "2011-10-23T19:56:18Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Your dad’s probably also of that age that saw “Ratfink” dolls, shirts and cars popularized by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. As am I. [Ratfink.](http://www.ratfink.com/images-pm/rat-fink.gif) [Rat Fink](http://vimeo.com/16145634) song by Allan Sherman, a parody of “Rag Mop.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/11 "2011-10-23T22:51:29Z")
There’s also the once you see it you can never bleach your brain magnificence of 1966’s [Ratphink a Boo Boo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059637/) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/12 "2011-10-24T00:02:45Z")
While on the subject, we cannot leave unmentioned “[The Pink Phink](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFv_E7FC4K4)” Pink Panther toon. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-fink/600557/13 "2011-10-24T01:28:25Z")
A lot of us boomers picked it up from Steve Allen on the Tonight Show in the early to mid 1960s. You could get away with using it in front of your parents instead of cursing.