Etymologically
Log in

kink

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 03:04. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Dutch kink (“twist, curl in a rope”), originally a sailors' word,[2][3][4][5][6] or the related Middle Low German kinke (“twist in a rope, spiral snail shell”),[2][7] which the Oxford Dictionary of English traces in turn to kinken (“to kink”).[8][9] The OED records the Dutch noun from the 17th century, in nautical use from 1671, and earlier in Middle Dutch kinc-horen (“spiral snail shell”) (1488); the Low German word is the source of German Kink.[2] Barnhart makes the Dutch word cognate with the Low German one and Old Norse kikna (“to bend at the knees”),[3] and Etymonline thinks it probably related to the Norse verb, the source of kick.[4] Skeat and Weekley took it as Scandinavian, comparing Swedish kink and Norwegian kink,[10][11] and Klein names French, Swedish or Dutch as the source.[12] The OED calls the further etymology uncertain and compares conkele (“underground corridor”).[2] The verb is either from the noun or from the Dutch verb, to become twisted.[2][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A twist or curl in a rope where it bends back on itself: 1623, in a letter of W. Goodlard printed in Purchas's Pilgrimes.[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1678, in Phillips's dictionary,[3][14] and Etymonline to the 1670s.[4]

Semantic evolution

From the twist in a rope the word spread to a crick or spasm in the neck or back (1788), a sharp bend in a road or line (1792) and a tight curl in hair (1809).[2] The figurative sense of an odd notion or whim began in American English: the OED's first example is from Abigail Adams in 1798,[2] while Barnhart and Etymonline cite Thomas Jefferson in 1803.[3][4] It came to mean a quirk of character, and in the 20th century an unconventional sexual taste (1902), a person with such tastes (1964) and, as a mass noun, such practices (1959).[2] A kink was also a minor flaw in a plan (1857; 1868 in Barnhart)[2][3] and, in American use, a clever trick or tip (1889).[2][15] The verb, to twist something, is recorded from 1625, in a translation from Dutch in Purchas, an example Weekley noted as earlier than the first OED's.[2][11] The adjective kinky, curly, is recorded in American English from 1844, and in Word Origins from the mid 19th century;[3][9] its sense "perverted" dates from 1959, and grew out of "eccentric, crotchety" (1859).[3]

Timeline

  • 1623 – a twist or curl in a rope, wire or the like, originally nautical.[2] Barnhart dates it to 1678.[3]
  • 1625 – verb, to twist something sharply upon itself.[2]
  • 1697 – verb, intransitive, to form a kink, in Dampier.[2][14]
  • 1788 – a crick or spasm in the neck or back.[2]
  • 1792 – a sharp bend in a line, road or course.[2]
  • 1798 – an odd idea or whim, first in American English.[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1803.[3][4]
  • 1809 – a tight curl in hair.[2]
  • 1857 – a minor flaw or problem in a plan.[2]
  • 1889 – a clever method; a tip.[2]
  • 1902 – an unconventional sexual desire or practice.[2]
  • 1964 – a person with unconventional sexual tastes.[2] Etymonline dates this to 1965.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sharp twist or curl in a rope, wire, hose or hair, where it bends back on itself: A kink in the garden hose stopped the water.[15][14][2]
  2. A sudden bend in a line or road that is otherwise straight.[14][2]
  3. A crick or spasm in the neck or back.[15][2]
  4. A minor flaw or difficulty in a plan or system: The new software still has a few kinks.[15][2]
  5. An odd trait of character; a quirk or whim.[15][2]
  6. (informal) An unconventional sexual taste or practice.[15][2]
  7. (US) A clever or unusual method; a useful tip.[15][2]

Verb

  1. To form a kink, or to make a kink in something: The wire kinked as he pulled it through.[15][14][2]

Word family

Usage notes

Scots and northern English dialect has a kink, a fit of coughing or laughter, and a verb kink, to gasp for breath in such a fit; the OED and the Shorter Oxford give it a separate source, relating it to chink,[2][13] and the Shorter Oxford derives the verb from Old English cincian.[13] Merriam-Webster labels it dialectal.[14] The noun formerly also meant whooping cough; compare kinkcough.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins