Definition of "pinko"

At Princeton a lone townsman cried "Down with Mussolini!" in the midst of a reception, was jostled by students, escorted off the campus. At Harvard the pinko National Students League protested to President Conant, but allowed the visitors to tour Cambridge in peace.

1934 October 22, “Gentlemen & Guttersnipes”, in Time Magazine‎, number 17, page 45

“I agree with the decision one hundred per cent,” he said. “And if I find any pinkos that I don't know about on my lot I'll get rid of them if I can. They don't even have to be Communists. I'll try to clean out any leftists.”

1947 November 30, Thomas F. Brady, quoting Bryan Foy, “Hollywood Divided”, in The New York Times‎

He'd be on her ass in a microsecond, revoke her letters testamentary, they'd call her names, proclaim her through all Orange County as a redistributionist and pinko, slip the old man from Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus in as administrator de bonis non and so much baby for code, constellations, shadow-legatees.

1966, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 6, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, page 136

Until society collectively starts using terminology like this effectively, all you'll end up with is a bunch of Commie Pinkos Stinking[sic] up parks around the country "Occupying" without a clear goal or message.

2011 October 24, Archangel Michael, “The 147 Corporations Controlling Most of the Global Economy”, in Slashdot‎

Kelly reassures his readers that the people who run this emerging economy are not left-wing in any traditional sense. They are “more likely to be libertarians than commie pinkos,” he explains.

2014, Astra Taylor, quoting Kevin Kelly, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company

Almost 10 years ago I made a documentary called Inside Child Poverty. Some people (largely members of John Key’s government) got very angry with me. I was a left wing pinko journo making this stuff up in an election year.

2020 December 14, Bryan Bruce, “10 years since the Child Poverty documentary, what’s changed?”, in The Daily Blog‎