pintle
(ˈpɪnt(ə)l)
Forms: 1–7 pintel, 4–5 pyntyl, 5– ell(e, pentill, 5–6 pyntil, -ill, -yll, pintil, 6–7 -ill, 7–8 -ell, (7–9 pintail); 6– pintle.
[OE. pintel (-el perh. dim.: see -le). Cf. OFris. pint, penth, Dan. dial. pint, pintel, LGer., Du., Ger. pint penis; also cuckoo-pint. Ulterior history uncertain.
(Kilian has † Pint. j. punt. Punctus, cuspis: & Mentula.)]
1. The penis. Now dial. or vulgar.
| a 1100 Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 292/16 Uirilius, pintel. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xlviii. (Bodl. MS.), Amonge þe genitals oone hatte þe pintel. c 1410 Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xiii, A litell pyntell and a litell hangynge, smale ballokes [etc.]. ? a 1500 Chester Pl. x. 363 Dame, shew me the child here, He must hopp upon my spere, And if it any pintle beare, I must teach him a play. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. K j, Questyons vpon the Anathomy of the pyntyll. c 1550 Lloyd Treas. Health B iij, The pintle and splene of an Asse. |
2. A pin or bolt, in various mechanical contrivances; esp. one on which some other part turns, as in a hinge. Among these are:
a. Naut. A pin forming part of the hinge of a rudder, usually fixed on the rudder and fitting into a ring on the stern-post. b. Gunnery. (a) An iron pin to prevent the recoil of a cannon; (b) the bolt on which a chassis oscillates in traversing; (c) ‘the iron pin in the axletree of a limber, to which the trail-eye of the gun-carriage is attached for travel’ (Knight Dict. Mech.); (also corruptly pin-tail). c. The king-bolt upon which the axle of a carriage turns in rounding a curve.
| 1486 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 15 A pyntell & a gogeon for the Rother. 1611 Cotgr., Masles, the pintles of a sterne; the yron pinnes that enter into the rings, or gudgeons thereof. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 11 The holes wherein the pintels of the murderers or fowlers goe into. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Pintles in a Ship, are those Hooks by which the Rudder hangs to the Stern-post. 1706 Phillips, Pintel or Pintle, (in Gunnery) an Iron-pin that serves to keep the Gun from recoiling. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Cc iv, The pintle..serves as an axis to the bed; so that the mortar may be turned about horizontally. 1828 J. M. Spearman Brit. Gunner (ed. 2) 177 Number 1 orders ‘Halt Limber Up’:..2, 3, and 6 lift the trail and place it on the pintail. 1843 Chamb. Jrnl. 17 June 176/3 The pintle upon which a looking-glass swings is commonly a piece of iron wire, having a screw-thread turned at each end. 1859 F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 112 The pintail of the dismounted limber. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. iv. 60 The rudder post, with its lugs for the pintles. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as pintle end; † pintle-fish, some kind of edible fish, so called from its shape (according to Jamieson, app. either a pipe-fish or the launce or sand-eel); pintle-hook, the hook on the pintle of a limber to which the eye of the gun-carriage is attached (see 2 b (c)).
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 281/1 A Pyntelle ende, prepucium. c 1549 D. Monro W. Isles Scot. (1774) 34 In this ile [Eriskeray] ther is daylie gottin aboundance of verey grate pintill fishe at ebbe seas. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Impr. xviii. 174 Dr. Wotton termeth it grosly the Pintle fish. |