thumbtack

English

A brass thumbtack

Etymology

From thumb +‎ tack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθʌm.tæk/

Noun

thumbtack (plural thumbtacks)

1. (Canada, US) A small nail-like tack with a slightly rounded head that can be pressed into place with light pressure from the thumb; used for hanging light articles on a wall or noticeboard.

   Synonym: (British) drawing pin

   Coordinate term: pushpin

   • 2016 June 10, BlocBoy JB (lyrics and music), “No Chorus, Pt. 5”, in Who Am I‎^[1], 1:20–1:27:

     You say that I'm broke my nigga, how is that?
     Bitch I'm stickin to this paper like a thumbtack

Translations

nail-like tack

• Arabic: دَبُّوس m (dabbūs)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: канцыля́рская кно́пка f (kancyljárskaja knópka), кно́пка f (knópka)
• Breton: tach-meud (br) m
• Bulgarian: га́бърче n (gábǎrče), ка́барче n (kábarče)
• Catalan: xinxeta (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 圖釘／图钉 (zh) (túdīng)

• Czech: připínáček (cs) m
• Danish: tegnestift (da) c
• Dutch: duimspijker (nl) m, punaise (nl) f
• Esperanto: desegnonajlo, prempinglo
• Estonian: rõhknael
• Faroese: teknistift f
• Finnish: nasta (fi)
• French: punaise (fr) f
• Galician: chatola (gl) f, chincheta (gl) f
• Georgian: ჭიკარტი (č̣iḳarṭi)
• German: Reißzwecke (de) f, Reißnagel (de) m, Heftzwecke (de) f, Reißbrettstift (de) m
• Greek: πινέζα (el) f (pinéza)
• Hungarian: rajzszög (hu)
• Indonesian: paku payung (id)
• Irish: tacóid ordóige f
• Italian: puntina (it) f
• Japanese: 画鋲 (ja) (がびょう, gabyō)
• Korean: 압정(押釘) (apjeong)
• Macedonian: притискач m (pritiskač)
• Malay: paku jari
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tegnestift (no) m

• Persian: پونِز (fa) (punez)
• Polish: pinezka (pl) f
• Portuguese: tacha (pt) f
• Romanian: piuneză (ro) f
• Russian: канцеля́рская кно́пка f (kanceljárskaja knópka), кно́пка (ru) f (knópka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: рајснадла f

  Roman: rajsnadla f

• Silesian: cwek m
• Slovak: pripináčik m
• Slovene: risalni žebljiček (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: gózdźik m

• Spanish: chinche (es) f, chincheta (es) f, tachuela (es) f
• Swedish: häftstift (sv) n
• Thai: หมุดหัวแบน
• Turkish: raptiye (tr), pünez (tr)
• Ukrainian: канцеля́рська кно́пка f (kanceljársʹka knópka), кно́пка f (knópka)

Verb

thumbtack (third-person singular simple present thumbtacks, present participle thumbtacking, simple past and past participle thumbtacked)

1. (transitive) To fix or attach something with a thumbtack.
   • 1988, Edmund White, chapter 1, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994:

     On the particle-board partition that separated his cubicle from the next, Paul had thumbtacked things that might inspire him […]

Translations

to attach something with a thumbtack

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 用圖釘釘住／用图钉钉住 (yòng túdīng dìngzhù)

• Esperanto: alpingli
• Finnish: kiinnittää nastalla, nastata
• French: punaiser (fr)
• German: anpinnen (de), anheften (de), anzwecken (de) (regional), zwecken (de) (regional)
• Portuguese: tachar (pt)
• Russian: прика́лывать (ru) impf (prikályvatʹ), приколо́ть (ru) pf (prikolótʹ)
• Spanish: tachonar (es)

Further reading

• drawing pin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “thumbtack”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.