blink

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English blinken,^[2][3] which the OED treats as an occasional variant of the usual blenken, found especially in Robert Mannyng of Brunne;^[4] blenken is in turn a variant of blench.^[4][2][5] Etymonline links blench with the rare Old English blencan (“to deceive”),^[6][7] and Wiktionary reconstructs an unrecorded Old English verb beside it, from Proto-Germanic *blinkaną, a variant of *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”).^[1] Apart from those Middle English uses the word is modern, recorded from about 1575, and it matches in date, form and sense Middle Dutch blinken (“to glitter, shine”) and German blinken, whose origin is equally obscure.^[4] Barnhart therefore takes the modern verb as borrowed from Middle Dutch,^[8][9] and Etymonline as perhaps borrowed from it;^[6] the Shorter Oxford and Hoad see a word of mixed origin, partly the native blenk and partly the Dutch verb,^[10][11] and the Oxford Dictionary of English speaks of a Scots variant of blench reinforced by the Dutch verb.^[12] The Dutch and German verbs are thought to be nasalized forms of the stem of Old English blīcan (“to shine, glitter”),^[4][6][11] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine, flash, burn”).^[6] Collins compares Danish blinke (“to wink”) and Swedish blinka,^[13][10] and Merriam-Webster relates the word to blank.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne (1303) the verb meant "to deceive" and "to look up, open the eyes", both senses rare and found only in that author;^[4] the noun meant a trick, and figuratively a faint sign of something good.^[4] The Oxford Dictionary of English lists "deceive", "flinch" and "open the eyes after sleep" as the early senses.^[12]

Semantic evolution

When the word came back into use in the late 16th century its senses had to do with moving the eyes: in the earlier ones, the OED says, the notion of glancing predominates, and in the later that of winking.^[4][6] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1580s,^[6] and Barnhart to 1590, in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[9] The noun "a glance, glimpse", chiefly Scottish, is recorded by the OED from 1594;^[4] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1578.^[14] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to wink, or twinkle with the eyes" and "to see obscurely".^[15] From the 18th century the verb was used of light that shines fitfully (1786, in Burns),^[4][6] and, as a sporting phrase at first, for shutting one's eyes to something, evading it (1742).^[4] The sense now most common, shutting the eyelids briefly and involuntarily, is recorded only from 1858,^[4][6] and the noun for such an act from 1924.^[4][6] From the old sense "a flicker, a spark" comes the American slang on the blink, nearly extinguished and hence out of order (1901).^[6][4] The phrase in the blink of an eye, according to the Phrase Finder, is a 19th-century rewording of the much older in the twinkling of an eye.^[16] In Scotland, Ireland and many English dialects blink meant a gleam or ray of light and a glance,^[17] and the ice blink, a white glare on the horizon reflected from ice, is recorded from 1778, in Cook's journal.^[4][7] In 19th-century American underworld slang to blink was to go to sleep.^[18]

Timeline

• 1303 – to deceive; to look up, open the eyes; noun, a trick (all in Robert Mannyng).^[4]
• c. 1300 – noun, a brief gleam or spark (Middle English blynke).^[6]
• 1575 – adjective, of the eyes, habitually blinking.^[4][14]
• 1578 – noun, a glimpse, glance.^[14]
• 1590 – the verb in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[9]
• 1592 – to glance, take a peep.^[4]
• 1600 – to look with eyelids half shut, as when dazzled.^[4]
• 1742 – to shut one's eyes to, evade.^[4]
• 1761 – to wink.^[6]
• 1778 – blink, ice blink.^[4]
• 1786 – to shine fitfully.^[4][6]
• 1858 – to shut the eyelids involuntarily for a moment.^[4][6]
• 1901 – on the blink, out of order.^[4][6]
• 1924 – noun, an act of blinking.^[4][6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To shut and open the eyes quickly, usually without meaning to: The sudden flash made everyone blink.
2. To look with the eyes half closed, as in bright light.
3. Of a light, to shine on and off, or unsteadily; to flicker.
4. To clear tears or dust from the eyes by blinking: She blinked away her tears.
5. To react with surprise; also, to pretend not to see a fault or wrong, to ignore it.

Noun

1. An act of blinking.
2. A brief gleam of light.
3. A white glare on the horizon reflected from ice; an ice blink.
4. on the blink (informal): not working properly, out of order.
5. in the blink of an eye: in an instant.

Word family

• eyeblink
• snowblink
• blink comparator

Related words

• blinker
• blench
• blank
• bleak

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Martin, Gary, The Phrase Finder: Meaning and Origin of Phrases, Sayings, Clichés and Quotes, https://www.phrases.org.uk
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com