▪ I. † ˈpinson1 Obs.
In use always in pl. pinsons. Forms: 4 pinceoun, 4–5 pynsoun, 4–6 pynson(e, 6 pynsen, pincon, pyncheon. 6–7 pinson.
[a. OF. pin{cced}on (Picard pinchons 1423) deriv. of pince pincers.]
(pl.) Pincers, forceps.
| 1356 in Riley Mem. Lond. (1868) 283–4 (Lett.-Bk. G. lf. 45) Pynsouns, pynsons. ? c 1357 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 560 Stanaxes, Hakkes, pikkes, chesels, et pinceouns. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 15827 In the tother hand she held A peyre off pynsouns. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 400/2 Pynsone, to drawe owt tethe, dentaria. 1493 Festivall (W. de W. 1515) 4 All the instrumentes of [Christ's] passyon, the spere, crowne, scourges, nayles, hamer, pynsons and the garlonde of thornes. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) II. 85/1 His Nose with sharp Pinsons was violently pluckt from his Face. 1595 Alcilia (1879) 34 Sometime with pincons of despaire to wring it [the heart]. 1597 J. Payne Royal Exch. 23 His fleshe by gobbets was nipt of with burnynge pyncheons. 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. xcvi. 383 Grope the hoofe with a paire of pinsons. |
▪ II. † pinson2 Obs.
Forms: 4–6 pynson, (5 -one, pyncon), 5–7 pinson, (6 -one, 7 pinsen).
[app. related in some way to prec. or to F. pincer to pinch: cf. OF. pinchon (1423), F. pin{cced}on toe-piece of a horse-shoe, f. pince toe of a hoof.]
A thin shoe of some kind; a slipper or pump.
The pinsons appear to have become obsolete soon after 1600. No contemporary description of them is known: Kersey (Phillips) in 1706 suggested ‘a sort of shoe without heels’; Halliwell has ‘thin-soled shoes’; Way Promp. Parv. (note) suggests ‘possibly, high and unsoled shoes of thin leather, worn with pattens’.
| 1390–1 Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 91 Pro furracione j pair pynsons. 1440 J. Shirley Dethe K. James (1818) 15 His furrid pynsons. 1503 in Calr. Doc. rel. Scotl. (1888) 341 [Six pair of slippers with] pynsons [to same]. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Calx, Calceo, to put on shoes, sockes or pynsons. 1599 Minsheu, Xervilla, a pumpe or pinsen to weare in pantofles. 1606 Holland Sueton. 147 Now and then was he also seene shod with womens pumps [margin] or pinsones. 1706 Phillips, Pinson or Pump, or a sort of Shoe without Heels. [1901 Westm. Gaz. 22 Feb. 10/1 A Regent Master..was bound..to wear heelless shoes, called ‘pynsons’.] |