Pinkerton

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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Habitational surname from a place near Dunbar, from an unexplained first element + Old English tūn (enclosure). This surname is well established in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Proper noun

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Pinkerton (plural Pinkertons)

  1. A habitational surname from Old English.

Statistics

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  • According to the 2010 United States Census, Pinkerton is the 4193rd most common surname in the United States, belonging to 8446 individuals. Pinkerton is most common among White (90.99%) individuals.

Noun

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Pinkerton (plural Pinkertons)

  1. (dated, countable) An operative employed by the Pinkerton National Detective Agency founded by Allan Pinkerton (1819–1884).
    • 1912, Alexander Berkman, chapter 6, in Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist:
      My heart wells up in admiration of the man, as I think of his participation in the memorable struggle of Homestead. He fought the Pinkertons, the myrmidons of Capital.
    • 1950 September 4, “Kiss the Donkey”, in Time:
      He joined the pickets in the bloody Homestead steel strike of 1892, and actually went so far as to jostle a Pinkerton.

Derived terms

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Further reading

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