winkle

Etymology

It is from English a shortening of periwinkle, the sea snail,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} as wig is of periwig.^[2] Klein calls it a back-formation from that word.^[8] That word is itself of uncertain origin:^[2][5] its second element is the Old English wincle (“shellfish”), found only in compounds such as winewincle (“periwinkle”), probably related to wincel (“corner”).^[2][3] Weekley took winkle straight from the Old English compound.^[9] The verb, usually followed by out, is from English from the noun, from picking a winkle out of its shell with a pin.^{[2][4][10][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The edible sea snail: 1585, in John Higgins's translation of Junius's Nomenclator.^[2][6][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1580s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb began as military slang:^[11] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1918,^[6] Barnhart to 1925,^[4] and the OED, which has not fully revised the entry, to 1942.^[2] It means to extract or dislodge someone or something, as a winkle is picked from its shell, and so to draw out or find out information.^[2][12] A slang use, "to evict a tenant by dubious means so that the property can be sold", is recorded in the Shorter Oxford,^[11] and Etymonline has winkler for a person who helps with such evictions by 1970, beside an older winkler, a gatherer of winkles, by 1889.^[3] In British nursery and juvenile slang winkle is also the penis, especially a small boy's,^[2][11][13] and the winkle-picker is a shoe with a long pointed toe.^[11] In American English the name is also given to whelks that bore into the shells of oysters and clams.^[6]

Timeline

• 1585 – the edible sea snail, the periwinkle.^[2][6][4]
• 1918 – verb, winkle out, to extract or dislodge.^[6] Barnhart dates the verb to 1925, the OED to 1942.^[4][2]
• 1951 – the penis, especially of a small boy.^[2]
• 1979 – winkle one's way, to make one's way cautiously, to worm one's way in.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An edible sea snail, the periwinkle, of the genus Littorina.^[6][12][11]
2. In American use, any of several whelks that bore into the shells of oysters and clams and eat them.^[6]
3. (slang) The penis, especially of a little boy.^[2][11][13]

Verb

1. (chiefly British, informal) Usually with out: to extract, dislodge or evict someone or something: It took the police a week to winkle the squatters out.^[12][6][2]
2. To get information out of someone with effort: She finally winkled the truth out of him.^[2][11]

Related words

• periwinkle
• wink
• winkle-picker

Usage notes

A rare dialect verb winkle, to twinkle or give light now and then, is a separate word, formed from English wink + -le; the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to 1791,^[2][6] and the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scots.^[14]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ 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)