clingy

Etymology

It is formed from English cling + -y.^[2][3][4][5] Cling is from Old English clingan (“to hold fast, adhere closely; to congeal, shrivel”),^[3][6] from Proto-Germanic *klinganą,^[1][3] a verb whose relatives include Danish klynge (“to cluster”) and the Old High German noun klinga (“narrow gorge”).^[3] Johnson (1755) also derived the adjective from cling.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Apt to cling; sticky, adhesive: first recorded in Kersey's Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum (1708–15).^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to the 1680s, of things,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1700–10.^[5]

Semantic evolution

For more than two centuries the word described things that stick: Johnson (1755) defined it as "apt to cling; adhesive".^[7] Modern dictionaries apply it especially to garments that cling to the body.^[4][9][10] The use for people, especially children, who depend too much on someone emotionally is dated by Etymonline to 1969, although the image of a "clingy vine" in a relationship goes back to 1896.^[3] Wiktionary records the sense of being possessive of a partner.^[1]

Timeline

• 1708 – apt to cling; sticky, adhesive.^[2] Etymonline dates the word, of things, to the 1680s.^[3]
• 1896 – a clingy vine, of a dependent partner in a relationship.^[3]
• 1969 – of people, especially children, too emotionally dependent.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a garment or fabric, tending to cling closely to the body: She wore a clingy silk top to the party.^[4][9][11]
2. Of a person, too emotionally dependent on someone, or possessive of a partner: The puppy grew clingy whenever we packed a suitcase.^[9][10][1]
3. Apt to cling; sticky or adhesive.^[2][7][11]

Word family

• clinginess

Related words

• cling
• clinging

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap