the pinky

the pinky

So this is the smallest finger of the human hand. It is also called: the pinky(Scottish spelling is pinkie), the little finger, the baby finger, the fifth finger (or fourth finger if you don't count the thumb) and even the anti-thumb.

From the word pinky, we get the term pinky ring. This is a small ring worn on the pinky and actually, many engineers in Canada and the U.S. wear a special ring on this finger. Also, villains in movies often wear pinky rings...

While researching this lesson I learned that in Japan, when talking about two people if you lift up your pinky it means they are in a relationship... but it is a bit of an old fashioned gesture.

In China, lifting up the little finger to someone is like the middle finger to English speaking people so it is really rude~!

The last thing to mention about the little finger is: pinky swear or pinky promise. This is when two people link their little fingers and shake to make a promise. It is often used by kids. A long time ago, if you broke this promise you were supposed to cut off your pinky... kind of like the Japanese Yakuza and 指つめ.

A: Are you telling the truth?

B: Sure, I pinky swear it's the truth!

In this case, they probably won't shake using their pinkies. It is kind of like saying: I swear, cross my hurt and hope to die(if I am lying).

Finally! The finger series is done, I hope you enjoyed it ^_^ If you have any questions or suggestions please leave a post on my message board!

Phil

Fingers

Hey everyone, I will be doing a little series about our fingers. Today, I will only tell you the English names for the different fingers. Later, I will be going over idioms that use fingers in them.

There are, of course, 5 fingers which are from out to in:

1- the pinky or little finger, this is the smallest finger on your hand

2- the ring finger, we call it this because when people are married they usually wear a ring here

3- the middle finger because it is umm... in the middle ^_- it is the longest finger

4- the index finger, also forefinger, pointer finger(we use it to point-not so polite) or trigger finger(it is used to pull the trigger to shoot a gun)

5- the thumb, this is the opposable finger which you use to hold things

Please note, with feet we usually just say big toe for the biggest and maybe pinky toe or little toe for the smallest. The rest of the toes have scientific names but people don't talk about them in everyday life.

Next time, we will talk about some idioms!

Phil

For more on fingers check out wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger