Pink
mid 17th century: from pink2, the early use of the adjective being to describe the colour of the flowers of this plant.
wiktionary
Unknown. Some lexicographers suggest comparison to regional German Pinke(“minnow; small salmon”), but this is not widely accepted. [1]
Borrowed from Middle Dutch pincke.
Probably from Dutch pingelen(“to do fine needlework”) or Low German[Term?]; compare Low German pinken(“hit, peck”) and Pinke(“big needle”).
Origin uncertain; perhaps from Dutch pincken(“blink”) or the English verb pink from the same source (Etymology 6, below). [2] Perhaps from the notion of the petals being pinked (Etymology 3, above).
Onomatopoeic.
Borrowed from Dutch pinken.
Unknown. Attested from the late 15th century. [3]
etymonline
pink (n., adj.)
1570s, common name of Dianthus, a garden plant of various colors; a word of unknown origin. It is perhaps from pink (v.) via the notion of "perforated" (scalloped) petals. Or perhaps it is from Dutch pink "small, narrow" (see pinkie), itself obscure, via the term pinck oogen "half-closed eyes," literally "small eyes," which was borrowed into English (1570s) and may have been used as a name for Dianthus, which sometimes has small dots resembling eyes.
The noun meaning "pale red color, red color of low chroma but high luminosity" is recorded by 1733 (pink-coloured is recorded from 1680s), from one of the common colors of the flowers. The adjective pink is attested by 1720. As an earlier name for such a color English had incarnation "flesh-color" (mid-14c.), and as an adjective incarnate (1530s), from Latin words for "flesh" (see incarnation) but these also had other associations and tended to drift in sense from "flesh-color, blush-color" toward "crimson, blood color."
The flower meaning led (by 1590s) to a figurative use for "the flower" or highest type or example of excellence of anything (as in Mercutio's "Nay, I am the very pinck of curtesie," Rom. & Jul. II.iv.61). Compare flour (n.). The political noun sense "person perceived as left of center but not entirely radical (i.e. red)" is attested by 1927, but the image dates to at least 1837. Pink slip "discharge notice" is attested by 1915; pink slips had various connotations in employment in the first decade of the 20th century, including a paper signed by a worker to testify he would leave the labor union or else be fired. To see pink elephants "hallucinate from alcoholism" is from 1913 in Jack London's "John Barleycorn."
pink (v.)
c. 1200, pungde "to pierce, puncture, stab with a pointed weapon," later (early 14c.) "make holes in; spur a horse," of uncertain origin; perhaps from a nasalized form of the Romanic stem that also yielded French piquer "to prick, pierce," Spanish picar (see pike (n.1)). Or perhaps from Old English pyngan and directly from its source, Latin pungere "to prick, pierce" (from suffixed form of PIE root *peuk- "to prick"). Related: Pinked; pinking.
Later "to decorate (a garment, leather) by making small holes in a regular pattern at the edge or elsewhere" (c. 1500). Surviving mainly in pinking shears (by 1934).
