In the words pinky swear, pinky promise, pinkie swear and pinkie promise, the noun pinky, also pinkie, designates the little finger. This noun is apparently a borrowing from Dutch pinkje, the little finger, itself from Dutch pink, of same sense.
—Cf. also origin of the word ‘pink’ and origin of ‘the ring finger’ and of French ‘l’annulaire’.
Used as nouns, pinky swear, pinky promise, pinkie swear and pinkie promise designate a binding promise made while linking one’s little finger with that of another person; hence, more generally, without the linking of fingers, a binding promise.
Used as verbs, those words mean: to make a binding promise while linking one’s little finger with that of another person; hence, more generally, without the linking of fingers, to make a binding promise.
These words originated in the language of children and young teenagers, and often carry negative or sarcastic connotations when used by, or with reference to, adults.
The U.S. historian and linguist John Russell Bartlett (1805-1886) mentioned the practice of making a bargain while linking one’s little finger with that of another person in Dictionary of Americanisms. A glossary of words and phrases, usually regarded as peculiar to the United States (New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1848):
PINKY. (Dutch, pink.) The little finger. A very common term in New York, especially among small children, who, when making a bargain with each other, are accustomed to confirm it by interlocking the little finger of each other’s right hands and repeating the following doggerel:
Pinky, pinky, bow-bell,
Whoever tells a lie,
Will sink down to the bad place,
And never rise up again.
The practice of making a promise while linking one’s little finger with that of another person was also mentioned in a review of Improper Channels (1981), a Canadianfilm starring Alan Arkin—review by Patrice Smith, Courier staff writer, published in The Evansville Courier (Evansville, Indiana, USA) of Saturday 5th September 1981:
The film’s story takes hold when little Nancy and Dear Old Dad cruise off to the movies, she balks at buckling up, and soon bumps her noggin inside the truck when Dad brakes suddenly.
Arkin spirits her off to the nearest hospital, where he and Nancy link pinkies and promise to say she fell (“Mom’ll kill me for not using my seatbelt”).
The earliest occurrences that I have found of pinky swear, pinky promise, pinkie swear and pinkie promise—used as verbs and nouns—are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From A Girl Could Get Lucky: A Comedy in Two Acts (New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1963), a two-character play about a taxi driver and a secretary, their romance, marriage and first months together, by the U.S. playwright, director and actor Don Appell (1919-1990):
—However, here, pinkie swear does not refer to the practice of linking one’s little finger with that of another person, but to the practice of kissing one’s little finger and lifting it skywards:
Penny. See that coffee table? I made it.
Andy. Come on!
Penny. Pinkie swear! (She kisses her pinky and lifts it skyward.) I mean, I didn’t make the marble top. I had to buy that.
2-: From a review of A Man Called Horse (1970), a film directed by Elliot Silverstein—review by Steve Moore, published in The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA) of Monday 22nd June 1970:
—Here, the use of “a pinky-swear-to-the-sky” may indicate that the reference is to the practice of lifting one’s little finger skywards:
The film is constructed around the vow to the sun as practiced by the Sioux. […]
[…] Harris is captured by the Sioux and made over into a horse. They keep him around to poke fun at and when that gets dull, he totes wood. Naturally, being a sensitive Englishman, he decides that his natural place (divine right, if you will) is at the head of the tribe, for several reasons. One, he can be pitcher and first batter; second, he can get a better chance to escape and third, there is this foxy-looking Indian chick who… (These are not necessarily in order.)
Well, she seems to love him all right, but her big brother says that before she can marry Harris, he has to go through the vow to the sun which, it turns out, is more than a pinky-swear-to-the-sky. They run some tent pegs through his chest skin and hang him from the ceiling for a while.
3-: From the column Me Speaking, by Ron Harris, managing editor, published in the Carlsbad Current-Argus (Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA) of Sunday 23rd March 1975:
You’re not going to believe this, but it’s the straight skam. Cross my heart and pinky-swear.
British commercial television has banned the showing of… Shirley Temple movies.
4-: From the Greenville Daily Advocate (Greenville, Ohio, USA) of Saturday 13th September 1975:
We confess now that we were guilty last June of violating our own most basic tenet in dealing with bureaucrats—don’t believe anything they say, unless they take a blood oath and pinky swear on the head of their great-grandmother, in which case up to one-fourth of what is said usually bears some slight resemblance to the truth.
5-: From At Myrtle Beach you’re licensed to be… garish, by Jim Jenkins, published in the Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, North Carolina, USA) of Thursday 24th June 1982:
There are scattered locally operated hotels that are still bargains at $40 per night, but the chains will run more: $80 at the Sheraton, for example, if you pinky swear and credit-card guarantee to stay at least five nights.
6-: From No Enemy but Time (New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1983), by the U.S. author Evelyn Wilde Mayerson (born 1934):
“Boy, Sorrell,” said Hilary, “you really know how to throw the bull.”
“Honest.”
“Pinky swear? On your mother?”
“I’m going to be a bomber pilot,” said Freddie.
7-: From Tiger Tales (Manhattan (Kansas): Sunflower University Press, 1984), by Milt Miller, who had fought in China with the 308th Bomb Group of the 14th Air Force:
We promise—really, pinky swear—we will send a U.S. Army Air Corps Task Force to China that will overwhelm the Imperial Japanese Air Force with numbers, might, and power.
8-: From My Life on a Diet: Confessions of a Hollywood Diet Junkie (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1986), the autobiography of the U.S. actress Renée Taylor (née Wexler – born 1933):
—Context: during a meeting in a hotel room, a film producer of Italian descent fails to have an erection when trying to force himself on the author:
“So, I guess a part in your picture is out, huh?” I said, standing at the door.
“Wait,” he said. “There is an old whor* who dies on the Brooklyn Bridge from bullets. I give you that if you keep your mouth shut that I did nothing.”
“Pinky swear,” I said.
“Okay,” he said. “Eat some spaghetti. I love your face.”
9-: From the following message, published in the Daily News (New York City, New York, USA) of Friday 14th February 1986:
Jimmy, by next Valentine’s Day we’ll be Mr. and Mrs. and I’ll L♡VE You even more.
I Pinky swear. Lisa.
10-: From a review of Stand By Me (1986), a U.S. film directed by Rob Reiner—review by Bryan Di Salvatore, published in the Missoulian (Missoula, Montana, USA) of Friday 29th August 1986:
We care for these kids because we feel they are kids, speaking to each other rather than hamming it up for adults. Their conversations—from the crude insults concerning each other’s mothers and the relative size of their own genitalia to the emerging wonderment about girls—charm us. Their fears, the imagined ones—of a groin-chomping junkyard dog—and the real ones—of psychopathic juvenile delinquents with names such as Eyeball and Ace—touch us. Their oaths of honesty—“pinky swears”—will never be matched in solemnity by anything later in life.
