Pinöpel

• Pinöppel, Pinökel, Pinöckel

From Low German Pinöpel, from Middle Low German pinappel, pināpel, pinākel (“roundish ornament at the top of a steeple”), itself borrowed from Latin pinnāculum. Cognate with English pinnacle.

The form pinappel is a phono-semantic matching as Middle Low German pinne (“pin”) + appel (“apple”), at least regionally also conflated with pînappel (“pinecone”).^[1][2] The form pināpel is either an intermediate step in this development or a later compromise with the original form. The modern umlaut vowel is perhaps best explained as a backformation from the diminutive (Low German Pinöpelken with /œː/ regularly derived from Pinapel with /ɔː/).

• IPA^(key): /piˈnøːpəl/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Pinöpel m (strong, genitive Pinöpels, plural Pinöpel, diminutive Pinöpelchen n) (colloquial, northern and central Germany)

1. a protrusion or stud of any kind, especially one designed for some function (in devices, fasteners, packaging, etc.)

   Synonym: Nippel

   • 2017, Oliver Schlick, chapter 11, in Wächter der Meere, Hüter des Lichts, Ueberreuter Verlag, →ISBN:

     Eilean und Ole stehen vor dem Kleiderschrank in Flints Keller und beobachten ungeduldig, wie Helios Ehrenfeld die Rückwand des Schrankes abtastet. »Hier war doch irjendswo so ein Pinöpel jewesen«, murmelt er. »Ah, hier!«

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Pin, Pinne