A spider’s pincers may pinch, and while the spider himself may be a pincher, he’s not using pinchers, but pincers to pinch.
Hmmm, sounds like one of those alliterations, doesn’t it?
Actually, all my huff and dudgeon deflated when I ran across Merriam-Webster’s note that pinchers and pincers are interchangeable when it comes to pinching. I’d still stick with pincer when discussing military strategy, though. Even if the movement does pinch the enemy.
Then I ran across pinscher . . . what’s a girl gonna do?
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Pincher | Pincer | Pinscher |
|---|---|---|
 |
 — |
 — |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Noun
Plural: pincers, pinchers Alternative spelling: pincher |
Noun
Plural: pincers, pinchers Alternative spelling: pincer |
Noun
Plural: pinschers A.k.a., Doberman pinscher, Dobermann pinscher |
| The plural is used with a plural verb
Noun: Someone or something that pinches |
Usually pincers and used with a plural verb Also a pair of pincers A tool made of two pieces of metal bearing blunt concave jaws that are arranged like the blades of scissors, used for gripping and pulling things
|
Any of a breed of short-haired medium-sized dogs of German origin |
| Examples: | ||
| Noun: He was a known pincher. Watch out for Mary. She’s a pincher. The pincher of my peach pies was finally caught! Think about it. Spock was a pincher. |
Grab the pincers if you want to pull that out.
The German blitzkrieg was the pincer movement at its most effective. Look out for those pincers! Don’t let the crab get his pincers in you. “He attacked me from behind again, this time with his pincers” (Secombe). “Often the Stilken will have great hooks or pincers in the place of forearms, which it uses with facility to seize its prey” (Nix). |
The standard pinscher is an ancestor of the Dobermann.
Pinschers were originally developed to go after rats on farms and for fighting or guarding. Those pinschers always looks so scary when used as guard dogs in movies. |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Adjective: pinchable, unpinched Noun: penny-pincher, pinch, pinches Verb: pinch, pinched, pinches, pinching |
Adjective: pincerlike | |
| History of the Word: | ||
| From Middle English (as a verb), from an Old Northern French variant of the Old French pincier meaning to pinch. | From Middle English from the Anglo-Norman French, which is from the Old French pincier meaning to pinch. | The first known use was in 1917.
Named for Friedrich Ludwig Dobermann, a German tax collector with a need for protection. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Pincher vs Pincer vs Pinscher
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Apple Dictionary.com
Merriam-Webster: pinscher
Nix, Garth. Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr. ASIN: B014S2QRPW. <https://amzn.to/3rbzAy9>.
Secombe, Fred. Goodbye Curate. HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN-13: 978-0006276852. <https://amzn.to/3BP13Lk>.
Pinterest Photo Credits
Spock at Console is courtesy of NBC Television and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. His eyes were manipulated to look toward the Dobermans, which is courtesy of PublicDomainPictures, is under the CC0 license, via Pixabay. It was cropped, and its background was removed. The poor Lobster, <https://pxhere.com/en/photo/438296>, has been severely cropped, and its claws manipulated to superimpose over Spock’s hands and grasp the clipboard. It is courtesy of Pxhere and is under the CC0 license.
Revised as of 17 Apr 2024
By: Kathy Davie