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wink

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English winken,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wincian (“to close the eyes; to wink, make a sign”),[5][6][7][8] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *winkōn (“to close one's eyes”).[1] It is cognate with Old Saxon wincon (“to nod”),[7][8][9] Middle Low German winken, Middle Dutch winken and Dutch winken,[7][6] and related to Old High German winchan (“to move sideways, stagger, nod”) and German winken (“to wave, wink”).[7][6][3] The Germanic base is a gradational variant of the one in Old High German wankōn (“to stagger, totter”) and Old Norse vakka (“to stray, hover”),[3][6][10] and Hoad gives it the sense of moving sideways or from side to side.[8] Etymonline, Barnhart and the OED trace it to Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bend, curve”), which they compare with Lithuanian véngti (“to avoid”).[3][6][7][9] wince, winch and wench are related.[11][12] The noun is formed from the verb in Middle English.[3][7][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To close one's eyes: before 899, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.[6][7] Old English glossaries also use wincian for "to make a sign" and "to blink".[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old English to wink was simply to close the eyes,[14][7] a sense the OED records until 1816 and that survives in hoodwink, to blindfold with a hood and then to deceive.[7][14] The sense "blink" is first recorded in the Cursor Mundi, before 1325,[6][7] and Middle English also used it for sleeping and for closing one eye to take aim.[7][2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the sense "close an eye as a hint or signal" to about 1100,[3][6] while Hoad notes that the deliberate, flippant closing of one eye is a 19th-century development.[8] From the late 15th century one could wink at a fault, pretending not to see it;[6][3][7] wink at is recorded from 1537.[7] Lights have winked since the 1590s.[3][7] The noun began as a closing of the eyes in sleep, in phrases like sleep a wink (1303),[7][6][3] and came to mean a nap (1362), a moment of time (1585, in phrases like in a wink) and a meaningful glance (1541).[7][3] Forty winks for a short nap is recorded by 1821,[3] and tip someone the wink, to give a private signal, was 17th-century thieves' cant.[14]

Timeline

  • before 899 – Old English wincian, to close the eyes.[6][7]
  • c. 1100 – to close an eye as a signal.[3][6]
  • 1303 – noun, in sleep a wink.[7][6]
  • before 1325 – to blink.[6][7]
  • 1362 – noun, a nap.[7][3]
  • late 15th century – to close one's eyes to a fault.[6][3][7]
  • 1541 – noun, a meaningful glance.[7]
  • 1585 – noun, a moment of time.[7][3]
  • 1590s – of lights, to twinkle.[3]
  • 1821 – forty winks.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To close and open one eye quickly, as a signal of friendliness, a shared joke or a secret: He winked at me across the table.[11][10]
  2. To close and open the eyes quickly; to blink.[11][7]
  3. Of a light, to flash on and off; to twinkle.[11][7]
  4. wink at: to pretend not to see a fault or wrongdoing; to connive at.[7][8]
  5. To signal something by winking, or to force away tears by winking.[11]
  6. (obsolete, Old English–1816) To close the eyes or keep them shut.[7][10][2]
  7. (obsolete, 1412–1649) To sleep or doze.[7][10]

Noun

  1. An act of winking, especially one that conveys a signal.[11][10][7]
  2. A brief moment; an instant: in a wink.[11][7]
  3. A short sleep; in not sleep a wink and forty winks.[10][7]
  4. A flicker or twinkle of light.[11]

Word family

  • wince
  • winch
  • wench

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes wink, a quick closing and opening of one or both eyelids, from blink, which suggests a sleepy or dazzled state in which the eyes cannot focus.[13] Separately, wink is a shortening of winkle (1851)[7][15] and of tiddlywink (1890).[7][10] Strong past forms, wank or wonk, are very rare, and wunk is jocular.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ 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)