# Use of 'fink' as pejorative in olden times **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-fink-as-pejorative-in-olden-times/566748 "2011-01-07T15:10:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [January 8, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-fink-as-pejorative-in-olden-times/566748/21 "2011-01-08T17:08:09Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Thanks all, but. . . . > > I wasn’t really looking for the etymology or derivation of “fink,” but its use in non-pop-culture conversation. Say, it’s 1960, and two guys are having drinks after work, and one of them says “That low-down, double-crossing fink grabbed my wife’s ass!” or That low-down, double-crossing fink got the job I applied for." I can see how “fink” was a safe pejorative for Hays Code movies, but I wonder about its actual use in real life, as opposed to other available epithets, like “SOB” and “bastard.” > > And on the sidetrack, let’s also not forget [Rat Pfink a BooBoo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059637/). By the 1960s fink was generally used by kids as a safe non-swear word. It was in Rocky and Bullwinkle in 1961. > [@](#): > > Boris: (trying to trick Rocky and Bullwinkle) I am part of one of the biggest advertising companies in the country. Dancer, Prancer, Blitzen and Fink. > Bullwinkle: Yeah, I have heard of those first three fellows, but who is Fink? > Boris: I am Fink. > Natasha: You can say that again dahling. We all would have gotten that. But by then it was mostly a kid’s term. I don’t think adults bothered to use it because they had real swear words they could get away with. If they did use it, they used it more or less jokingly. And if you haven’t seen _Rat Pfink a BooBoo_ - and who has, nowadays? - run, don’t walk, to whatever outlet you use for weird old movies. It’s an experience like nothing else. Not a good experience, but an Experience. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-fink-as-pejorative-in-olden-times/566748/22 "2011-01-08T23:12:04Z")
Another late 50’s kid checking in … Fink was standard US slang for a person (usually a guy) with poor character. My dad & his friends used the term all the time to describe one or another jerk at work. I & my friends used it for other kids who were a PITA. At the time I thought it had some connontation of a suck-up, teacher’s pet, tattle-tale. But that wasn’t the primary thing it meant. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-fink-as-pejorative-in-olden-times/566748/23 "2011-01-08T23:28:22Z")
Yeah, it was a catch-all term for people with all kinds of negative character traits. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-fink-as-pejorative-in-olden-times/566748.md?page=1)