Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) a communist, socialist or even mildly liberal sympathizer (depending on the speaker’s viewpoint).

1936		J.G. Cozzens Men and Brethren 104: She’s a good girl [...] Now only a healthy pinko. I’ve snatched her like a brand from the Young Communist League burning.
1948		‘B. Rose’ Wine, Women and Words 105: I wouldn’t call him a Commie, but if he doesn’t get a check from Moscow every week, he’s being robbed [...] Unfortunately the pinko didn’t drinko.
1959		H.S. Thompson letter 12 June in Proud Highway (1997) 170: Hoarse shouts of ‘kill them pinkos!’ from a black-shirted band of Legionnaires.
1969		J. Crumley One to Count Cadence (1987) 227: You sit down in Mickey’s with those damned pinkos.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 135: Bunch of fuckin’ pinkos.
1985		in J. Miller Koori 218: Since I believe in Koori land rights and no dams on the Franklin River, that makes me a black, greenie, pinko.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 269: pinko someone perceived as being a communist sympathiser, or some sort of ‘commo’ in his attitudes.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 112: Maybe his real enemies hadn’t been the Catholics and the homosexuals, the pinkos and the reds.
2000–02		Macquarie Dict. 🌐 pinko noun 1. Also, pinkie. a Communist or Leftist sympathiser.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] What do you think this Fyfe jackal is slinging the pinkos?
2014		A.L. Colón ‘Dinner Rush’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] ‘There’s two huge fucking pinkos ready to carve me up’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 44: [Elia Kazan’s] susceptible. There’s some pinkos he didn’t rat to HUAC’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 162: Yes, [H.G. Wells] might have been a gullible pinko. Yes, he might have been a sucker for Uncle Joe.