wrinkle

Etymology

Its origin is obscure.^[2][3][4] Most dictionaries take it as a back-formation from wrinkled,^{[2][5][6][7][8]} and the adjective is probably from Old English gewrinclod (“wrinkled, crooked, winding”),^{[6][5][9][10]} a past participle recorded once, of a ditch, with no infinitive known.^[11][3][12] Its verb would be gewrinclian (“to wind, crease”), formed from ge- and wrinclian (“to wind”),^[5][9][10] related to wrencan (“to twist”), the source of wrench.^[5][9] The Middle English Dictionary derives the noun from the verb wrinklen,^[13][10] and the OED notes that the Old English noun wrincle and the simple verb, given by Somner, occur in no known text.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”),^[6] and Etymonline, after Watkins, to a nasalized variant of *wergh- (“to turn”).^[10] Collins compares Swedish vrinka (“to sprain”).^[7] Liberman points to the rhyming words for a wrinkle in other languages, Danish rynke, Swedish rynka and German Runzel, and to English crinkle; the Scandinavian words once began with hr.^[14] For the sense "clever trick", Random House and Collins have a separate source, wrinc (“trick”) with a diminutive suffix, from wrenc (“trick, artifice”),^[8][7][11] and Chambers and Weekley allow it;^[15][16] the OED keeps the sense under the same word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small fold or crease of the skin: before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi.^[2] Barnhart dates wrynkle, a ridge or fold, to 1392,^[9] and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[10] The Middle English Dictionary also records a winding passage or path.^[13]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a wrinkle was also a winding or curve (1430–1513) and a crooked action, a trick or wile (1402–1578).^[2][13] From the creased skin of age the word went to creases in cloth (before 1420) and to a moral stain, as in the biblical without spot or wrinkle, before 1400 and in Tyndale's Bible of 1526.^[2][10] By the 1580s, in Sidney's Arcadia, it was used figuratively of a minor difficulty, later something to be ironed out;^[2][10] The colloquial sense "a clever idea or device, a new trick" is in Green's Dictionary of Slang from 1552,^[17] and in Swift in 1731–38;^[9] Etymonline has it by 1817, and "a useful hint" by 1818, in sporting slang.^[10][9] Bartlett (1848) called "an idea, notion" colloquial in England and America,^[18] and the English Dialect Dictionary lists "a new idea, a tip" as in general colloquial use.^[19] The verb, a back-formation from wrinkled or wrinkling in the OED's view, is recorded from 1528.^[2] Barnhart dates wrynclen to about 1425.^[9] In thieves' cant of 1812–19 to wrinkle meant to lie.^[17][2]

Timeline

• before 1400 – a crease in the skin; a moral blemish.^[2]
• 1402 – a trick or wile (obsolete by 1578).^[2]
• before 1420 – a crease in cloth.^[2]
• 1430 – a winding, a curve (obsolete by 1513).^[2]
• 1528 – verb: to become wrinkled.^[2]
• 1552 – an idea or device, a trick.^[17]
• 1566 – verb: to draw the skin into wrinkles.^[2]
• before 1586 – a minor difficulty, a snag.^[2]
• 1633 – a ripple on water.^[2]
• 1818 – a useful hint, a tip.^[10][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small crease or fold in the skin, especially from age: laughter lines and wrinkles.^[7][5][2]
2. A slight ridge or furrow on a surface, such as a crease in cloth.^[7][5][2]
3. A minor problem or irregularity: There are still a few wrinkles to iron out.^[2][10]
4. (informal) A clever trick, method or innovation; a useful hint.^[20][21][19]

Verb

1. To form wrinkles in something; to pucker: She wrinkled her nose at the smell.^[7][5][2]
2. To become wrinkled: The paper wrinkled as it dried.^[7][5][2]

Word family

• wrinkly
• antiwrinkle
• unwrinkle

Related words

• wrench
• wring
• crinkle
• winkle

Usage notes

In dialect and in North America wrinkle is also a name for the periwinkle, an alteration of winkle after this word, recorded from 1589.^[2][12][5]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ Liberman, Anatoly, The Oxford Etymologist (blog column), OUPblog, blog.oup.com, p. "Skin-deep: wrinkle, pimple, and mole", 14 December 2022
15. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford
19. ^ 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)
20. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
21. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge