Etymology: Cognate with Middle Dutch pin , pinne wooden peg or nail, spike, pinnacle (Dutch pin , †pinne pin, peg, marker used in various sports or games, marker in a vessel for liquids, bolt, pin on which something turns, (now obsolete) pinnacle), Old Saxon (rare) pinn peg, nail (Middle Low German pin , pinne pin, peg, pin on which something turns, pinnacle (German regional (Low German) Pinn , Pinne peg, bolt, small nail), Old High German (rare) pfin peg, nail (Middle High German (rare) phinne nail, early modern German pfynne nail; compare also early modern German pynne nail, tack (1400; < Middle Low German pinne ), German Pinne , †Pin , †Pinn peg, nail (18th cent.; < German regional (Low German) Pinn , Pinne )), Old Icelandic pinni pin (in late sources), Norwegian pinne , also (now rare, chiefly in compounds and idiomatic expressions) pinn knitting needle, pin, peg, Danish pind , †pinnæ (usually wooden) pin, peg, knitting needle, (now rare) thorn, prick, Old Swedish pinne (Swedish pinne , †pin , †pinn (usually wooden) pin, peg, bolt), probably < classical Latin pinna feather, wing, fin, raised part of a battlement (in post-classical Latin, in the Vulgate (Luke 4:9), with reference to the pinnacle of the temple), in post-classical Latin also pin, peg (from 14th cent. in British sources, also as pinnus ), tuning peg of a musical instrument (1622 in a British source), peg in a drinking vessel (1102 in a British source), tile pin (1316, c1478 in British sources; compare quots. 1527 at sense 3, 1664 at sense 3), rock, hill (11th cent.): see further pinna n.²With sense 2c compare Dutch pen (1678 in Hexham in this sense). In later use in sense 4b perhaps influenced by Irish binn mountain peak, pinnacle (Early Irish benn : see ben n.²), especially in the name of the Twelve Pins in Connemara, also known as Twelve Bens (Irish Beanna Beola lit. ‘Beola's peaks’; compare quot. 1792 at sense 4b). The Irish word was apparently associated with post-classical Latin pinna (see above) at an early date. With sense 4c(b) compare earlier pinny adj. 2. With sense 4f compare earlier pin bone n., pin buttock n., pin-buttocked adj. Sense 5d may have been extended from the game of merrills or morris, in which actual pegs were sometimes used; alternatively, it may have derived from the shape of Tudor chessmen, which were not unlike ninepins. The origin of the idiomatic phrases at Phrases 1a is unknown; in later use apparently sometimes (compare quot. 1658 at Phrases 1a) associated with sense 1c. With to take (a person) down a pin and variants (see Phrases 1b) compare earlier to take (a person) down a peg and variants (see 3a, and discussion at that entry). The origin of Phrases 1c(b) is unclear. It has variously been explained as originating from the pins in a drinking-cup (sense 2a), the use of a pin or peg in stopping up a container for liquids, or the use of pins as regulating or controlling parts in machinery such as spinning-wheels. With branch III. compare earlier preen n. The occasional Scots forms pein, peen, pien, etc., may be influenced by this word.