eyelid

Etymology

It is formed from English eye + lid,^[2][3][4][5] in Middle English eie-lid, also eyelid and eielid.^[6][7] The second part is from Old English hlid (“covering, opening, gate”),^[3][6][8] with a base meaning "cover" that survives in this compound.^[8] Wiktionary posits an unrecorded Old English *ēaghlid, from Proto-West Germanic *augahlid.^[1] The OED compares Middle Dutch oghelet, Dutch ooglid, Old Saxon ōghlid, Old High German ouglid and German Augenlid,^[2] as well as the earlier eye-bree and Old Frisian āch-brē (“eyebrow, eyelid”).^[2] According to Wiktionary, the compound generally replaced Middle English palpebre, from Latin palpebra.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of the lids that cover the eye: before 1200, in glosses to Ælfric's Grammar and Glossary.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates it to the 12th century,^[7] Etymonline to the mid-13th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1200–50.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has changed little.^[2] In Middle English it could be used loosely for either the eyelid or the eyebrow,^[6] and the plain word lid could also mean an eyelid.^[6][3] A gloss on Bibbesworth from before 1325 has eielide for pauper,^[6] and a Psalter of about 1350 has eȝen-liddes.^[6] Figurative use goes back to before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[2] The phrase hang by the eyelids, to have only a slight hold, is recorded from 1587, in R. Greene.^[2] Johnson (1755) called it the membrane that shuts over the eye.^[9] The American use of bat for moving the eyelids dates from 1847,^[3] and not bat an eyelid is built on it.^[4][10]

Timeline

• before 1200 – one of the two lids of the eye.^[2]
• before 1382 – figurative use.^[2]
• 1587 – hang by the eyelids, to have a very slight hold.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Either of the two movable folds of skin that close over the eyeball and open again.^[7][4][2]
2. hang on by the eyelids: to have only a slight hold on something.^[4][2]
3. not bat an eyelid: to show no emotion or surprise.^[4][10]

Related words

• eyebrow
• eyelash
• eye
• lid

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Allen, Robert, ed. (2007), The Penguin English Dictionary, 3rd ed., London: Penguin