Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PINK, n. [In Welsh, pinc signifies smart, fine, gay, and a finch, and pinciaw, to sprig. This is by Owen formed from pin, a pen or pin. But in Portuguese, picar; to sting, to prick, to peck, to nip, to pinch, to dig, to spur, and picado, pricked, pinked, as cloth, are from the root of peck, pick, pico, beak, pike, Sp. picar It. piccare. The latter would, with n casual, give pink, a little eye or perforation, and the sense of pink, in pink-sterned. The Welsh gives pink, a flower.]

1. An eye, or a small eye; but now disused except in composition, as in pink-eyed, pink-eye. – Shak.
2. A plant and flower of the genus Dianthus, common in our gardens.
3. A color used by painters; from the color of the flower. – Dryden.
4. Any thing supremely excellent.
5. A ship with a very narrow stern. [Fr. pinque, D. pink, that is, piked, n being casual; hence pink-sterned.]
6. A fish, the minnow. – Ainsworth.