Etymology: < chink v.¹ Compare kink n.²

Etymology: This and its verb, chink v.², are known only from the 16th cent. There is nothing similar in Germanic or Romance.In sense, chink is exactly equivalent to the earlier word chine n.¹, and indeed its earliest known occurrence is in Berthelet's edition of a work, where it has been substituted for chine , chynne of earlier manuscripts and editions. And, although ‘chynes and chynkes’ occurs in 1545–64, it may be said that, generally, chink took the place of chine , between 1550 and 1580. It thus looks like a new formation on chine ; but no satisfactory account of its origin can at present be offered. If chinch , chinse v., is, as it appears to be, a variant of the verb, the whole may have to be referred to an earlier date. Professor Skeat thinks it ‘formed with an added k expressive of "diminution"’; but examples of this process in 15–16th cent. are not known. Wedgwood would identify it with chink n.³, with the root notion of a sharp shrill sound, as in the chink of metal, and thence derive the sense of sudden fissure or fracture accompanied by such a sound. He compares the development of crack n., ‘sharp report’ and then ‘fissure’, and of other words, in which actions are instinctively expressed by their associated sounds. (Compare e.g. bang, bomb, bum, chap, clap, pop.) But the historical data are too scanty to establish this.

Etymology: An imitative word. Compare chink v.³

Etymology: Apparently a variant of kink n.¹ Compare the corresponding chink v.⁴

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps (i) (with alteration of the final consonant) < Chinese qǐnɡ please, commonly used as an expression of courtesy or deference (see chin chin int.), and thus perceived as stereotypically Chinese by white English speakers, or (ii) perhaps a transferred use of chink n.², with (offensive) allusion to the comparatively narrow eyes of many East Asian people (compare slit-eyed adj. at slit n. Compounds 2), probably reinforced by the similarity of the first four letters (in writing, though not in pronunciation) to those of Chinese adj. and the name of China (see China n.¹), or (iii) perhaps a back-formation < either Chinky adj.² or Chinky n.

Etymology: Shortened < chinkerinchee n.

Etymology: Goes back to an Old English *cincian of which the verbal noun cincung occurs in 11th cent., corresponding to Low German and Dutch kinken to cough, to draw the breath with difficulty, apparently a Low German nasalized form of *kîk-an , whence Middle High German kîchen , modern German keichen to gasp, cough. In English the northern dialect form kink is common from the 14th cent.; but chink is known only in modern dialect writers or illustrators (Lancashire, Cheshire, etc.). Compare chink n.¹, chincough n.

Etymology: Belongs to chink n.², along with which it appears in the 16th cent. Compare also chine v.¹ and chinse v.

Etymology: Corresponds to modern Dutch and East Frisian kinken ; a word imitating the sound expressed. See chink n.³, and note below.The Harl. MSS. 221 (c1440) of Promp. Parv. has the entry ‘Chymyn' or chenken' wythe bellys tintillo’, which, if genuine, carries back the evidence for this word a century earlier. Unfortunately, the reading is not supported by the other manuscripts, some of which, like the King's Coll. and Winchester, have not the entry, while MS Add. 22, 586, like Pynson's and the other printed editions, has ‘chymyn or clynke bellys, tintillo’. This and the treatment of Clynkyn farther on make it possible that chenken is a scribal error for clynken.

Etymology: Goes with chink n.⁴: there appears to have been a Germanic verb kink- to twist, entangle.