DINK

acronym Also written Dink, dink, Dinkie, Dinky, etc. (People and Society) Colloquially, either partner of a career couple with no children, both of whom have an income from work and who are therefore viewed as affluent consumers with few drains on their resources. Etymology: Formed on the initial letters of Double (or Dual ) Income No Kids; in the variant forms Dinkie or Dinky, the diminutive suffix -ie, -y is added in imitation of yuppie, although Dinky is sometimes explained as Double Income No Kids Yet. History and Usage: DINK is one of a line of humorous terms (often acronyms) for social groupings that followed in the wake of the successful yuppie in the mid eighties. It owes its existence to the trend analysts and marketing executives of the US and Canada, who in 1986 identified and targeted this group as an increasingly important section of the American market. Typically, the partners in a DINK couple are educated to a high level and each is committed to a high-paid career; the social trend underlying the coinage is that women with high educational qualifications tend to have fewer children, and to have them later in their careers than was previously the case. For two or three years, DINK appeared to be almost as successful a coinage as yuppie (despite its confusability with the US slang word dink 'penis', also used as a personal term of abuse); derivatives included dinkdom and the adjective undink (not characteristic of a DINK). Less successful variants on the theme, such as OINK (One Income No Kids), Nilkie (No Income Lots of Kids), and Tinkie (Two Incomes, Nanny and Kids) came and went during 1987. A later attempt was SITCOM (Single Income, Two (K)ids, Outrageous Mortgage), which appeared in 1989, but this also failed to make much impression. These speedy high-rollers are upper-crust DINKs...They flourish in the pricier suburbs as well as in gentrified urban neighborhoods. Time 20 Apr. 1987, p. 45 The wolf is looming through the smoked-glass door even for many hard-working Dinkie...couples. The Times 2 May 1990, p. 10