Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

fink

/fɪŋk/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms finks finking finked fought

  1. noun A contemptible person.
  2. noun An informer.
  3. noun A strikebreaker.
  4. verb (chiefly US, slang) To betray a trust; to inform on.
  5. noun (South Africa) Any of several birds in the family Ploceidae native to southern Africa.
  6. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

rat ratfink assbag assbreath assbucket asschunk asscunt assface assfag assfaggot assfuck assfucker asshat asshead asshole assmonkey assmouth assmunch assmuncher asstard snitch snitcher stoolpigeon stool pigeon stoolie sneak sneaker canary scab blackleg

Etymology

Unknown; first attested in 1894. A connection to Yiddish as some propose is unlikely.
* German Fink (“finch; frivolous or dissolute person; informer”) as finches are notoriously chatty birds in groups. If so, then Doublet of finch. Compare canary (“informer”).
* Partly from the German theory, a fanciful association by students with the freedom of wild birds as opposed to caged ones.
* The slang name pink for Pinkerton agents and their use as strikebreakers in the 1892 Homestead strike. If the term is from the corporate name, then it is of Scots origin, Pinkerton being from a place near Dunbar, which is from an unrecognized first element (possibly ultimately pre-Celtic substrate) and Old English tūn (“enclosure, homestead, etc.”).

Borrowed from Afrikaans vink.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “fink”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details