Transcript of “What’s So Pink About Pinking Shears?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Yeah, hi, this is Brian. I’m in San Antonio, Texas.
Well, I was curious about the term pinking shears.
Doing some sewing?
Not really. My mom was the seamstress when I was a child.
She had a sewing machine, and one thing she used for working from patterns mostly was cutting fabric with pinking shears, which gives a fabric a zigzaggy edge. And this helps to preserve the fabric from wearing and washing and so forth. And anyway, I just wondered, where did that word come from, pinking shears?
Pinking shears. Are we talking about colors here, Martha?
Well, no, we’re talking more about the action of the shears themselves.
And the term pinking itself goes back to the 1300s, probably to an old word that means to pierce or to stab or make holes in. And it might be related to words like the French word piquet, which means to pierce or stick. And so if you’re in a fit of pique, you’re irritated, something’s pricking you.
And it may also be related to the Spanish word picar, which means to sting or prick and gives us picante, that spicy.
Yeah, that spicy quality.
And then in the 16th century, the English verb to pink meant to poke decorative holes in, say, cloth or leather. You know, the little finishing touches on something you’re working with.
And by the 19th century, people used what was called a pinking iron to punch out a decorative hem on a garment. So it had a zigzag pattern. And what you did was you took the cloth and you put it over a hard surface. And in between the hard surface and the cloth, you had this pinking iron that had a zigzag pattern on it. And then you hammer it with a mallet.
And that cuts that little zigzag pattern.
But what a pain to do that.
And then along comes Louise Austin of Whatcom, Washington. And in 1893, she patents what she called pinking shears. And this is a device that you can use to, of course, do the pinking really quickly. And then they were adapted from that.
So it has to do with piercing and making holes in and cutting.
That’s terrific.
And what a smart woman that was.
Yeah, I hope she died a millionaire.
That’s really cool.
Well, we’re glad to help and glad that whatever memory prompted you to call us prompted you to call us.
I’m very glad to speak to you.
This is great.
Okay, so long.
Bye-bye.
We appreciate our word, Horde. That’s H-O-R-D-E. And that means you.
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