Talk:Dianthus

Discussion on origin of the word pink

...color pink is named after the flower; the origin of the flower name 'pink' is unknown*, suggestions that it is connected with the frilled edge of the flowers as though cut with pinking shears is uncertain.

• Actually, there are many theories. The below is taken from World Wide Words (www.worldwidewords.org) compiled by Michael Quinion.

The word pink is generally agreed to be derived from the similar Dutch word pinck. However, there are two theories about which sense of the Dutch word was involved, and how it became applied to the colour. One is that it came from pinck in the sense of "small" (which turns up in the modern English word pinky for "little finger"), through the expression pinck oogen "small eyes"-that is, "half-closed eyes"-and that this was borrowed into English and applied to the flowers of the common English cottage-garden species Dianthus plumarius, which has been called a pink since the seventeenth century. The other theory says it came from pinck in the sense of "hole" (which is the origin of pinking shears, the device used to make ornamental holes in cloth) and was applied to the flowers of Dianthus because they resembled the shape of the holes. Either way, the colour comes from the plant, not the other way round.

The point I'm trying to make is that the colour is NOT so named because the flowers are mainly pink (they aren't), unlike 'orange' which is named after the fruit (it's a French corruption of a Sanskrit word).

• I added the phrase some people have proposed that... in front of the first paragraph and moved the rest here.RJFJR 02:29, August 7, 2005 (UTC)

• This section is misleading: The origin of the flower name 'pink' is unknown; it has been suggested that it comes from the frilled edge of the flowers, which look as though they were cut with pinking shears, but actually, the shears were patented in 1893 and got their name from the flower. Pinking shears may have been patented in 1893, but only as an improvement on older "pinking irons". "Pink" as a verb dates from the 14th century, meaning to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern. (Source Collins dictionary). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.252.80.100 (talk) 13:51, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

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