Pinful

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The amount that a single pin can hold or carry ; having a great number of pins filling or covering something
2. A quantity small enough to fit on one pin ; packed or filled with many pins
3. The small measure a pin can carry ; describing something stuffed or covered with pins

Etymology: Pinful is a plain compound: "pin" plus the suffix "-ful", meaning "as much as a container or space holds." The "-ful" suffix comes from Old English "full," and in the older sense it attached to measures and containers, as in "spoonful" or "handful." "Pinful" follows the same pattern, so it names the quantity that a pin's worth of something can hold. The word's most common use is in the phrase "a pinful of" to describe a very small amount, such as a pinful of salt or sugar in a recipe, usually the amount that could be gathered on the tip of a pin. The "pin" itself traces back to Old English "pinn," a peg or small pointed wooden fastener, which was borrowed from Latin "pinna," meaning feather or point. That link to the old sense of a sharp tip explains why a pin's quantity is measured by what its point can carry.