Wink; winks

Posted by ESC on September 28, 2000

In Reply to: 40 Winks posted by Greeble on September 27, 2000

: I've tried to reply in the archives but nothing seemed to happen, and I couldn't get to the bottom of the old current list to post a new one, so I'm gonna start again now...

: "40 winks" was discussed in archive 4, but that was really only about the significance of the "40"... So where does the "winks" come in? People don't tend to wink when asleep.. So.. Huh? :)

".The unlucky say they 'didn't sleep a wink' all night, an expression used in England since the 14th century (wink is related to 'wince' and 'winch,' a quick dodge, a turn)." From Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982).