squint

Etymology

It is from English a shortening of asquint, with the loss of the first syllable.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED takes the adverb from asquint, the adjective from the adverb or from squint-eyed, the verb again from asquint, and the noun from the adjective or the verb;^[2] Etymonline derives both the verb and the noun from the adjective.^[3] Asquint, obliquely, recorded from the early 13th century, is of uncertain origin:^[3][2] the OED analyses it as a- (on) and a word corresponding to Dutch schuinte (“slope, slant”), of which no independent English use survives, and finds no evidence whether it was borrowed from Dutch or was a native cognate, though the absence of related words in Old English or Old Norse makes a native word unlikely.^[2][3] Ayto takes the Dutch noun as a derivative of schuin (“sideways, sloping”), itself of unknown origin.^[7][8] Barnhart connects the obsolete Middle English ofskwyn (“obliquely”), of about 1440,^[4] and the Middle English Dictionary compares French équinter (“to cut to a point”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adverb, with a squint, obliquely: 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus,^[2] in the compound squyntloker.^[6] Dictionary.com dates the adverb to 1350–1400.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, used of eyes that look obliquely or are affected with strabismus, is recorded from 1579, in Spenser's Shepheardes Calender;^[2][10] the Oxford Dictionary of English places it in the mid 16th century, in squint-eyed.^[11] It soon took a figurative sense, of looks expressing suspicion or envy: Milton wrote of "squint suspicion" in Comus (1637),^[2][12] and Etymonline dates the meaning "looking askance" to the 1610s.^[3] The verb appears first in a figurative sense, to have an indirect reference or aim, in Nashe's Lenten Stuffe of 1599;^[2][4][10] its physical senses follow in 1610, to glance obliquely or peep, and 1611, to be cross-eyed.^[2] The noun meant strabismus from before 1652, and a sidelong or hasty look from 1673.^[2][10][3] In architecture a squint is a hagioscope, an oblique opening through which the altar can be seen, from 1839–40.^[2][6][13] The sense that is now the most common, to narrow the eyes in order to see more clearly, is recorded only from 1879, and of narrowing them against strong light from 1900; the noun followed in 1909.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as looking obliquely or suspiciously and gave it a Dutch origin.^[12] In Scottish, Irish and Yorkshire dialect the verb also meant to watch slyly or look critically, and in Gloucestershire a squint-hole was a slit in a barn wall for light and air.^[14]

Timeline

• 1398 – adverb, with a squint, obliquely.^[2]
• 1579 – adjective, of eyes: looking obliquely, cross-eyed.^[2][10] Etymonline dates the adjective to the 1570s.^[3]
• 1599 – verb, figurative: to have an indirect reference, bearing or aim.^[2][4][10]
• 1610 – to look obliquely; to glance hastily, to peep.^[2]
• 1611 – to be cross-eyed.^[2]
• 1637 – adjective, of suspicion: looking askance.^[2]
• before 1652 – noun, strabismus.^[2][10]
• 1673 – noun, a sidelong or hasty look.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to the 1660s.^[3]
• 1839 – noun, in architecture, a hagioscope.^[2]
• 1879 – to partly close the eyes to see more clearly.^[2]
• 1900 – to partly close the eyes against strong light.^[2]
• 1909 – noun, the act of narrowing the eyes.^[2]
• 1947 – noun, in radar, a deliberate misalignment of an aerial's axis.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To look with the eyes partly closed, as against bright light or to see more clearly: She squinted at the small print on the label.^[13][10][2]
2. To partly close the eyes, or to cross them.^[13][2]
3. To have a squint; to be cross-eyed.^[13][10][2]
4. To look sideways or askance; to glance obliquely.^[13][10][2]
5. To have an indirect bearing, reference or aim.^[10][2][15]
6. To run off from a straight line; to run obliquely.^[10][2]

Noun

1. Strabismus, a condition in which the eyes do not look in the same direction.^[13][10][2]
2. (informal) A quick look; a glance: Let me have a squint at that map.^[13][10][2]
3. The act of narrowing the eyes.^[10][2]
4. (architecture) A hagioscope, a narrow oblique opening in a church wall or pillar giving a view of the main altar.^[13][10][2]
5. An inclination or bent toward something.^[10][2]

Adjective

1. Of the eyes: looking obliquely; having a squint, cross-eyed.^[13][10][2]
2. Looking askance, as with envy, disdain or distrust.^[10][2]
3. (informal) Crooked; askew.^[13][2]

Word family

• squinter
• squinty
• squintingly
• squintingness
• unsquinting
• squint-eyed
• squinting modifier

Related words

• asquint

Usage notes

In Nottinghamshire dialect squint also meant to squirt, and a squirt, a word the English Dialect Dictionary keeps apart from this one.^[14] In American Mexican teenage slang of the 1990s, squint or make a squint meant to leave or run off.^[16]

References

1. ^ 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 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 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 d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b 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)
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com