Lorraine Dubuc Mar 25, 2018:

@ Tony Yes some sort of 'rod' but what FX found is indeed a perfect illustration of what it is.

Tony M Mar 25, 2018:

@ Lorraine Yes, those certainly illustrate certain types of pins; but if you look at the illustration F-X has sensibly found, you can see that this particular 'pin' isn't really anything like that at all: it's not some removable kind of attachment pin, like a 'split pin' or a 'clevis pin' or 'cotter pin', it is a specific part engineered for a particular purpose, that just happens to be vaguelly 'pin-shaped' — it might equally well perhaps have been some kind of 'tige'. What is clearly important here is the actual item in the specific context.

Lorraine Dubuc Mar 25, 2018:

This is more what I had in mind than a 'broche' http://www.desormeau.com/fr/produits/goupilles/
http://www.desormeau.com/en/products/pins/

Lorraine Dubuc Mar 25, 2018:

@ Tony The first thing that came to my mind was a «Goupille à tête ronde» exactly because of the mechanical use. Unfortunately I did not find anything of that sort for header pin, although I am pretty sure this is what the header pin is about. I will give a reference of what I picture as a header pin.

Tony M Mar 25, 2018:

@ Lorraine Sadly, that's a quite different use of the term (an electronic connector), nothing to do with the much more mechanical context here, which has been correctly identified by F-X below.

Lorraine Dubuc Mar 25, 2018:

Reference to header pins https://leeselectronic.com/en/category/2900-header-pins-and-...