22C:096
Computation, Information, and Description

Survey of Mathematical Techniques

The Pigeonhole Principle

Definition of "pigeonhole"

from the Random House Dictionary

pigeonhole:

1. a hole or recess, or one of a series of recesses, for pigeons to nest in. 2. one of a series of small compartments in a desk, cabinet, or the like, used for filing papers, letters, etc. 3. to lay aside for future reference. 4. to put aside and ignore. 6. to put into categories.

I'm never satisfied with a definition, until I try the Oxford English Dictionary.

pigeon-hole, sb. [f. PIGEON sb. + HOLE sb.]

1 A hole (usually one of several) in a wall or door for the passage of pigeons; hence transf., esp. one of a series of holes for the passage of liquids, escape of gases, etc.
1683 SALMON Doron Med. II. 569 Two doors, the one at the bottom with a `Pidgeon' hole in it. 1858 DICKENS Lett. 25 Aug., To see him and John sitting in pay-boxes, and surveying Ireland out of pigeon-holes. 1890 Cent. Dict., Pigeon-hole,..one of a series of holes in an arch of a furnace through which the gases of combustion pass... One of a series of holes in the block at the bottom of a keir through which its liquid contents can be discharged.
2 A small recess or hole (usually one of a series) for domestic pigeons to nest in. Hence any small hole, recess, or room for sitting or staying in; also, a small flat.
1577 B. GOOGE Heresbach's Husb. IV. (1586) 171 To feede and fatte them [turtle doves] in little darke roomes like Pigions holes. 1622 Chapel Warden's Acc. Bks. in D. Lysons Environs Lond. (1795) II. 221 Paid for making a new payre of pigeing-holes, 2s. 6d. 1777 P. THICKNESSE Year's Journey II. li. 151 All the rest of the apartments are pidgeon-holes, filled with fleas, bugs, and dirt. 1820 SCOTT Fam. Lett. July (1894) II. xvi. 89 We have plenty of little pigeon holes of bedrooms. 1852 MUNDY Antipodes (1857) 212 There was..a single dormitory for four hundred men!.. Each pigeon-hole is six feet and a half long, by two feet in width.1869 MARK TWAIN Innoc. Abr. viii. 80 You can rent a whole block of these pigeon-holes for fifty dollars a month.
3 A cant name for the stocks; also for the similar instrument in which the hands of culprits were confined, when being flogged. Obs.
1592 GREENE Disput. Wks. (Grosart) X. 233, I dare scarce speake of Bridewell because my shoulders tremble at the name of it,..yet looke but in there, and you shall heare poore men with their handes in their Piggen hoales crye, Oh fie vpon whoores, when Fouler giues them the terrible lash. 1614 B. JONSON Barth. Fair IV. iv, Downe with him, and carry him away, to the pigeon-holes. 1694 ECHARD Plautus 193 He'll be stock'd into the Pigeon Holes, where I'm afraid the poor Devil must make his Nest tonight.
4 pl. An old out-door game, the particulars of which are doubtful: cf. quot. 1847-78. Obs.
1608 Great Frost in Arb. Garner I. 97 Then had they other games of `nine holes' and `pigeon holes' in great numbers. 1632 ROWLEY New Wonder II. i. 17 What ware deale you in? Cards, Dice, Bowls, or Pigeon-holes? 1684 Ballads illustr. Gt. Frost (Percy Soc.) 7 In several places there was nine-pins plaid, And pidgeon holes for to beget a trade. 1699 Poor Robin (N.), The boys are by themselves in sholes, At nine-pins or at pigeon-holes. 1847-78 HALLIWELL, Pigeon-holes, a game like our modern bagatelle, where there was a machine with arches for the balls to run through, resembling the cavities made for pigeons in a dove-house.
5 Printing. An excessively wide space between two words. Now not common.
1683 MOXON Mech. Exerc., Printing xxii. P 4 These wide Whites are by Compositers (in way of Scandal) call'd Pidgeon-holes. 1771 LUCKOMBE Hist. Print. 396 [Too] many Blanks of m-quadrats will be contemptuously called Pigeon-holes. 1771 LUCKOMBE Hist. Print. 398 Doubles..are conspicuous by the Pigeon-holes which are made to drive out what was doubled. 1825 HONE Every-day Bk. I. 1140. 1841 SAVAGE Dict. Printing 590. 1900 POWELL Practical Printing 174.
6 A seat in the top row of the gallery of a theatre. Obs.
1747 Gentl. Mag. XVII. 22/1 All tickets to be stampt pro rata..; a first gallery ticket for the play, one six-penny stamp: an upper gallery, or pigeon hole, or upper seat ticket for the play, to have one three penny stamp. 1828 Lights & Shades I. 254 On his benefit-night Brandon may be seen in one of the pigeon-holes, counting the house. 1828 Lights & Shades II. 104 But in the pigeon-holes!..you lean over-you hear the undistinguishable joke that sets every body else laughing.
7 a One of a series of compartments or cells, in a cabinet, writing-table, or range of shelves, open in front, and used for the keeping (with ready accessibility) of documents or papers of any kind, also of wares in a shop.
1688 LOCKE Let. 6 Feb. in B. Rand Corr. J. Locke & E. Clarke (1927) 245 Another way may be with pigeon-holes as they call them: at these twenty-four holes, over the first paste an A, over the second a B, [etc.]. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts (ed. 2) II. 156, I put the papers..into a pigeon hole in a cabinet. 1796 BURKE Let. to Noble Ld. Wks. VIII. 58 Abb e Sieyes has whole nests of pigeon-holes full of constitutions ready made, ticketed, sorted, and numbered. 1862 SALA Ship-Chandler iii. 48 Pigeon-holes full of samples of sugar, of rice, tobacco, coffee, and the like. 1879 J. A. H. MURRAY Addr. Philol. Soc. 8 This has been fitted with blocks of pigeon-holes, 1029 in number, for the reception of the alphabetically arranged slips.1972 C. ACHEBE Girls at War 99 `Can I see your pigeon-hole?'.. `That's the glove-box. Nothing there.' 1978 Lancashire Life Nov. 151/1 Some find it possible to envy those who sit on the official side of counter or pigeonhole.
b fig. One of a series of ideal `compartments' for the classification of facts or objects of thought, or of persons, as by occupations.
1847 FR. A. KEMBLE Later Life III. 305 People whose minds are parcelled out into distinct divisions-pigeon-holes, as it were. 1879 FARRAR St. Paul II. 189 Without attempting to arrange in the pigeon-holes of our logical formul the incomprehensible mysteries encircling that part of it. 1902 L. STEPHEN Stud. Biog. III. iii. 90 He was incapable of arranging his thoughts in orderly symmetrical pigeon-holes.1938 [see ALL-ROUNDER]. 1957 [see DEFERRAL].
8 attrib. Consisting of, like, or having pigeon-holes or small apertures.
1685 LOCKE Jrnl. 28 Aug. in P. King Life Locke (1829) 167, I saw a boor's house a mile or more from Amsterdam... There were three pigeon-hole beds, after the Dutch fashion. 1874 RAYMOND Statist. Mines & Mining 403 When the fire-place is separated from the ore compartment by pigeon-hole walls. 1875 W. M[C]ILWRAITH Guide Wigtownshire 31 Large fronts pierced by small pigeon-hole windows. 1899 Academy 30 Sept. 329/1 Mr. Saintsbury has the pigeon-hole form of mind..collecting any quantity of conclusions and facts, and after tying them up and labelling them, putting them away for future use in the pigeon-holes of memory.1968 R. A. LYTTLETON Mysteries Solar Syst. iv. 137 On a simple pigeon-hole argument, the probability of the distribution being due to pure chance turns out to be less than 1 in 1000.

pigeon-hole, v. [f. prec. sb.]

1 trans. To deposit in a pigeon-hole (7); to put away in the proper place for later reference; hence, to put aside (a matter) for (or on pretence of) future consideration, to shelve for the present.
1840 C. CAMPBELL in T. Bland Bland Papers I. p. v, The lady..reached down a bundle of letters..from the interstices of the eaves of the porch, where they were nicely pigeon-holed. 1855 Knickerbocker XLVI. 95 The bill of the gentlemanly proprietor..was deliberately met by a bill for `damages to cow-catcher', and pigeon-holed. 1861 Sat. Rev. 20 July 67 We do not doubt that Lord Lyveden, by duly pigeon-holing the com- plaint, added another to the long list of his public services in that line. 1872 H. SPENCER Princ. Psychol. (ed. 2) II. VII. xviii. 485 Duly arranged and, as it were, pigeon-holed for future use. 1889 PEMBERTON E. A. Sothern 69 Robertson's original adaptation..was, for a period of eight years, `pigeon-holed'.1940 WODEHOUSE Eggs, Beans & Crumpets 154 Putting the prophet Hosea to one side for the moment and temporarily pigeon-holing the children of Adullam. 1949 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LIII. 410/2 Although the flying bomb project was pigeon-holed, out of this early work the Mark 1A Auto-pilot and the Queen Bee target aeroplane emerged. 1955 Times 15 June 3/3 Why had the Minister pigeon-holed the Phillips report? 1963 Ann. Reg. 1962 205 Tentative plans for an exchange of television appearances by the Soviet and American leaders were also pigeon-holed. 1976 Milton Keynes Express 16 July 2/5 One plan that seems to have been pigeon-holed for the time being is the idea of finding another site for the College of Further Education.
2 To assign to a definite place in the memory, or in an ordered group of ideas; to place or label mentally; to classify or analyse exhaustively.
1870 H. STEVENS Bibl. Geogr. & Historica Introd. 4 The writer has thought it well to pigeon-hole the facts. 1880 Times 2 Oct. 11/3 Text-books should be merely used as means for..pigeon-holing knowledge previously acquired. 1889 Athenum 16 Mar. 338/1 [Bacon admonishes] against..wilful rejection of facts that we are unable to pigeon-hole.1950 D. GASCOYNE Vagrant 59 Keep your labels for people who need them; I cannot be pigeonholed neatly. 1978 J. B. HILTON Some run Crooked v. 41 Why? `To avoid Cantrell..having already pigeon-holed him as a kerb-crawler.'
3 To furnish with or divide into a set of pigeon-holes; also fig.
1848 [see PIGEON-HOLED below]. 1879 J. A. H. MURRAY Addr. Philol. Soc., I had proposed to pigeon-hole the walls of the drawing-room for the reception of the dictionary material. 1883 J. PAYN Thicker than Water xiii, A huge sandbank..pigeonholed by sand-martins. 1895 Amer. Ann. of Deaf Apr. 132 The mind will have been pigeon-holed, and the knowledge classified.1940 [see DING AN SICH, DING-AN-SICH].
4 To deposit (a corpse) in a columbarium. rare.
1858 HAWTHORNE Fr. & It. Note-Bks. I. 117 Decently pigeon-holed in a Roman tomb. Hence 'pigeon-holed ppl. a., 'pigeon-holing vbl. sb. Also 'pigeon-holer. 1848 Bachelor of Albany 192 It was a pigeon-holed, alphabeted mind. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 63 He obtained a formal list of the `pigeon-holed' treaties. 1884 Q. Rev. July 23 The lover of uniformity and pigeon-holed schemes. 1886 W. J. TUCKER E. Europe 120 A dozen large, clumsy-looking desks, with a variety of pigeon-holed shelves. 1890 Cent. Dict., Pigeon-holed, formed with pigeonholes for the escape of gases of combustion..or for the discharge of liquids. 1895 Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 754 That terrible pigeonholer of freight schedules at Washington. 1904 G. MEREDITH in Daily Chron. 5 July 3/2 Most women have a special talent for pigeon-holing.

Last modified: 19 December 1996 Maintained by Michael J. O'Donnell, email: odonnell@cs.uchicago.edu