Chink (chingk)

1) noun

A derogatory term for a Chinese person, also Chinkey, Chinkie, Chinky. The term is thought to have come from a mispronunciation of the Chinese word Chung-Kuo, meaning China.
1879 W. J. BARRY Up & Down vii. 51 We..had a good passage to Hong-Kong. When we arrived, the first Chinese war with Britain had broken out, and there was every appearance of plenty of fun to be shortly had with the Chinkies.

1882 A. J. BOYD Old Colonials 233 The pleasant traits of character in our colonialized ‘Chinkie’, as he is vulgarly termed.

1899 BOXALL Austral. Bushrangers 241 They rode straight to the Chinese camp at Wombat, ‘to give the Chinkies a lesson’.

1901 Munsey's Mag. XXIV. 536 The leader suggested the ‘chink’, and to the one Chinese laundry..the little band departed.

1905 Westm. Gaz. 26 Sept. 6/1 The farmers getting a reward of £1 for each ‘Chinkey’ they turn over to the police.

1910 W. M. RAINE B. O'Connor iv. 41 Chinks, greasers, and several other kinds of citizens driftin' that way.

1919 War Slang in Athenæum 8 Aug. 727/2 ‘Chinks’ for Chinese labourers.

1922 J. S. FLETCHER Ravensdene Court xiv. 173 ‘AChink?’ ‘He means a Chinaman,’ I said.

1923 D. H. LAWRENCE Kangaroo xvi. 351 Brother Brown and Chinky and all the rest: the Indians in India, the niggers in the Transvaal.

1926 Chambers's Jrnl. 552/1 The towns, small or large, possessed from one to hundreds of ‘Chink’ laundries.

1932 J. DOS PASSOS 1919 17 The Barman was a broadfaced Chink.

1936 ‘R. HYDE’ Passport to Hell 229 The little Chinks hated the Boche like hell.

1945 [see CHOW-CHOW n. 3].

1959 N. MAILER Advts. for Myself (1961) 353 A certain Chinkie.

1969 J. DURACK in Coast to Coast 1967-8 99 We used to have a couple staying with us. Chinks, they were, medical students.

2. noun

A convulsive gasp for breath, or spasmodic losing of the breath, as in whooping-cough; a convulsive fit of coughing or laughing.

1500 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 791 (Nom. Infirmitat.) Hec reuma, a chynge.

1767 H. BROOKE Fool of Qual. iv, My Lord and Lady took such a chink of laughing, that it was some time before they could recover.

1855 MRS. GASKELL Cranford ix. (D.), The boys were in chinks of laughing.

3) noun

A) i) A fissure caused by splitting; a cleft, rift, or crack; a crevice, gap.

1398 TREVISA Barth. De P.R. VIII. xl. (Tollem. MS.) Also in chines, holes and dennes of e ere.

c1450 MS. Bodl. 3738 VIII. xxviii, and

1495 W. de W. ibid., In chynnes holes and dennes.

1535 Ibid. ed. Berthelet VIII. xl, The chinkes, holes and dennes of the erthe.

1545 T. RAYNALDE Byrth Man Hhj, Betwene the chines and gynks

[ed. 1564 chynes and chynkes] of closely ioynyd bourdes.

1577 B. GOOGE Heresbach's Husb. II. (1586) 77 See it be..not ful of chincks or cleftes, that the Sunne burne not the tender rootes.

1601 HOLLAND Pliny II. 585 A city swallowed vp by a wide chinke and opening of the earth.

1691 RAY Creation I. (1704) 87 The Water descending..into Chinks and Veins.

1697 DRYDEN Virg. Georg. III. 656 The chapt Earth is furrow'd o'er with Chinks.

1791 SMEATON Edystone L. (1793) §26 An iron chain..fast jambed into a chink of the rock.

1865 GEIKIE Scen. & Geol. Scot. viii. 229 The cliff..is rent into endless chinks and clefts.

ii) A fissure or crack in the skin; a chap.

1597 GERARD Herbal I. xl. 60 The chappes and chinkes of the hands.

1748 tr. Vegetius' Distemp. Horses 196 A sore like a Chap or Chink.

iii) figurative 

1664 H. MORE Myst. Iniq. ix. 28 Any such chink or least crack in Religious worship.

1860 EMERSON Cond. Life, Power Wks. (Bohn) II. 329 There is no chink or crevice in which it [power] is not lodged.

B. A long and narrow aperture through the depth or thickness of an object; a slit, an opening in a joint between boards, etc.
  1552 HULOET, Chinck, clyft, cranny, or creues of earth, stone or woode, thorowe the whiche a man maye loke.

1579 SPENSER Sheph. Cal. May, Privily he peeped out through a chinck.

1599 SANDYS Europæ Spec. (1632) 139 The box of devotion, with..two tapers on each side to see the chinke to put money in.

1656 COWLEY Misc., Reason vi, There through Chinks and Key-holes peep.

1703 MAUNDRELL Journ. Jerus. (1732) 96 Fire was seen..Thro' some chinks of the door.

1839-47 TODD Cycl. Anat. III. 111/2 The length of the chink of the glottis is very variable.

1862 E. A. PARKES Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 127 Chinks and openings produced by imperfect carpentry.

fig. 1831 LANDOR Andrea of Hungary Wks. 1846 II. 540 That is the chink of time they all drop through.

4. noun

A) An imitation of the short, sharp sound produced by pieces of metal or glass striking one another; hence a name for this sound.

1581 J. BELL Haddon's Answ. Osor. 276b, As soone as theyr coyne shall cry chink in your boxes.

1601 R. YARINGTON Two Lament. Traj. V. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, And chinck of gold is such a pleasing crie.

1655 FULLER Ch. Hist. III. i. §18 The chink of their money.

1782 COWPER Truth 140 At chink of bell.

1855 T ENNYSON Maud X. iii. 7 The chink of his pence.

1872 H OLLAND Marb. Proph. 10 The sharp, metallic chink of grounded arms.

B) Any sound of the same kind.
a1764 LLOYD To Colman, Ere Milton soar'd in thought sublime, Ere Pope refin'd the chink of rhyme.

1790 BURKE Fr. Rev. Wks. I. 165 Half a dozen grasshoppers..make the field ring with their importunate chink.

1879 JEFFERIES Wild Life in S.C. 299 The ‘fink, chink’ of the finches sounded almost as merrily as before.

1. pl. Pieces of ready money, coins. Obs.  

1573 TUSSER Husb. (1878) 134 To buie it the cheaper, haue chinkes in thy purse.

1577 HOLINSHED Descr. Irel. iii, Such as had not redy chinckes, and theruppon forced to run on y^e score.

1592 SHAKES. Rom. & Jul. I. v. 119 He that can lay hold of her, Shall haue the chincks.

1611 COTGR., Quinquaille, chinkes, coyne

D) A humorous colloquial term for money in the form of coin; ready cash. Exceedingly common in the dramatists and in songs of the 17th c.; now rather slangy or vulgar.

1573 TUSSER Husb. (1878) 101 Til purse doe lack chinke.

1598 FLORIO, Dindi..a childish word for money, as we say chinke.

1652 C. STAPYLTON Herodian xv. 129 They shew withall their purses full of Chink.

1653 J. TAYLOR (Water P.) Wks. (1876) No. 20. 8 He pay'd the chinque, and freely gave me drink.

a1745 SWIFT Martial I. lxxxvi. 67 Nay, I'm so happy, most men think, To live so near a man of chink.

a1845 HOOD Black Job iv, A Treasurer, of course, to keep the chink.

E) [from the sound of their note.]    

1. The Chaffinch, a bird; also called chink-chink, chink-chaffey, chinky-chank. dial.    
2. The Reed Bunting, a bird . Sc.

1797 T. BEWICK Brit. Birds (1847) I. 104.

1864 ATKINSON Provinc. Names Birds, Chink, chinky, chaffinch.

1875 BUCKLAND Note in White's Selborne 356 The chiff-chaff is also called the ‘chinky-chank’.

5) noun

See quote below:
a1825 FORBY Voc. E. Anglia, Chink, a sprain on the back or loins, seeming to imply a slight separation of the vertebræ.
Hence chink-backed adjective.  
1868 Daily News 8 Dec., The chink-backed bullock.

 

6) noun

Short for chinkerinchee, the liliaceous bulbous plant Ornithogalum thyrsoides, bearing white to golden-yellow flowers in a dense 12- to 30-flowered raceme. colloq.
1949 L. G. GREEN Land of Aft. v. 73 ‘Chinks’ grow only in the Western Province.

1960 C. LIGHTON Cape Floral Kingdom xiii. 117 The ‘chinks’ have always been welcome in Britain as a change from the usual run of early winter flowers.

7) verb

To gasp convulsively for breath, lose one's breath spasmodically in coughing or laughing.
[c1050 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 171 Cachinnatio, ceahhetung uel cincung.

c1460 Towneley Myst. 309, I laghe that I kynke.

1607 T. WALKINGTON Opt. Glasse 46 Hee laughes and kincks like Chrysippus.] 1853 MRS. GASKELL Ruth xviii. (D.), He chinked and crowed with laughing delight.

1875 Lancash. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Chink, to lose one's breath with coughing or laughter.

1884 HOLLAND Chester Gloss. (E.D.S.), Chink, to catch or draw the breath in laughing. When a child first begins to make a noise in laughing, it is often said ‘it fairly chinks again’.

8) verb

A) To open in cracks or clefts, to crack.
  1552 HULOET, Chynken or gape, as the ground dooth with dryeth.

1580 BARET Alv. C 484 The boate chinketh.

1601 HOLLAND Pliny II. 467 The earth aboue head chinketh, and all at once..setleth and falleth.

1610 W. FOLKINGHAM Art of Survey I. x. 24 Chapping grounds, chinking, or chauming with Cranies.

1693 W. ROBERTSON Phraseol. Gen. 332 To chink, as ground doth, rimas agere.

B) 2. trans. To crack or chap. Obs.
1599 T. M[OUFET] Silkwormes 11 Kissing their wal apart where it was chinckt. 1601 HOLLAND Pliny II. 551 This kind of painting ships is so fast and sure, that neither sun will resolue..ne yet wind and weather pierce and chinke it.

1611 COTGR., Gercer, to chink, chap, chawne (as the North wind does) the face, hands, etc.

a1656 BP. HALL Seasonable Serm. 15 (L.) The surface..is chopped, and chinked with drought, and burnt up with heat.

1. To fill (up) chinks, esp. (U.S.) those between the logs in a log-house.

1822 SCOTT Nigel vii, The walls, doors, and windows, are so chinked up.

1845 G. W. KENDALL Texan Santa Fé Exped. I. i. 25 Our log-house quarters, however, were closely ‘chinked and daubed’.

1881 Scribner's Mag. 79 While the men..build the house, the women chink the cracks.

9) verb

tranlation: To give a twist to (the vertebral column); to crook slightly, sprain.
a1825 FORBY Voc. E. Anglia, Chink, to cause such an injury. ‘The fall chinked his back.’

1831 YOUATT Horse x. (1843) 227 Old horses who have..some of the bones of the back or loins anchylosedunited together by bony matter and not by ligament. Such horses are said to be broken-backed or chinked in the chine.

1881 OUIDA Village Comm. x, As a packed mule is ‘chinked’ on the march.

10) adjective

chinky: characterized by, or full of, chinks.
c1645 HOWELL Lett. I. xxiii. 45 Those Rayes..scorch and parch this chinky gaping soyl.

1697 DRYDEN Virg. Georg. IV. 63 Plaister thou their chinky Hives with Clay. a1774 GOLDSM. Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) I. 327 The vapours..trickle downwards into the chinky bed of the hills.

1863 WORSLEY Poems & Transl. 156 And, torn from its familiar flood, The chinky pinnace rots apace.

1. Chinky n.(British)
1. A Chinese restaurant or take away food service.
2. A Chinese meal

"I don’t feel like cooking, let’s grab a chinky on the way home."

2. Chink-Chow n.

A derogatory term for Chinese food

3. Chinkie-jog n.

A slow steady run (Chinaman’s trot)

4. Chinks n.

The ‘creeps,’ the ‘shivers.’[1930+] (Irish)

"give one the chinks"

5. Chink-stick n.

A rough board bed. [1950+]

 

Cassidy, Fredric G. Dictionary of American Regional English. Volume I: Introduction A-C. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985.

Former, John S. Slang and It’s Analogues Past and Present. Volume I – A-Fi. NY, NY: Kraus reprint ed. 1965.

Green, Johnson. Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang. NY, NY: Cassell & Co., 1998

Hendrickson, Robert. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins. Revised and Expanded Edition. NY, NY: Facts on File Inc., 1997.

Old English Dictionary Online. http://dictionary.oed.com/

Thorn, Tony. The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. NY, NY: Pantheon Books, 1990.

compiled by Amanda Harris

February 28, 2002

Rhetoric of Race Dictionary Project home

Rhetoric of Race Home