Etymograph

English

pin

Pin comes from Old English pinn ‘pin, peg, bolt’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bend-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bend-1‘protruding object, pointed peg, nail, edge’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pinnaz1reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pinn1‘pin, nail’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150pinn1‘pin, peg, bolt’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pinne1
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588pin1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English pin
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “For kings are clouts that euery man ſhoots at,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bend-Wiktionary, English pin‘protruding object, pointed peg, nail, edge’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pinnazWiktionary, English pinreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pinnWiktionary, English pin‘pin, nail’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150pinnWiktionary, English pin‘pin, peg, bolt’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pinneWiktionary, English pin
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588pinWiktionary, English pin. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “For kings are clouts that euery man ſhoots at,…”

The story

No relation to classical Latin pinna (‘fin, flipper, wing-like appendage, wing, feather’), which was extended to mean "ridge, peak, point" (compare pinnacle), and often confused with Latin penna (‘wing, feather’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bend- ‘protruding object, pointed peg, nail, edge’

pen, 1 more

Today it means

noun A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “pin”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bend- / pin

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