對人使的眼色(動詞與名詞)
這一族就是核心動作本身,加上它最主要的用途:傳一個只有你們兩人懂的訊息。
close one eye (signal) · verb · C2
To close and open one eye quickly, to send a message, share a joke, or show that something is a secret.
使眼色
One eye shutting and opening in a flash — from which grow a private signal, a light, and the smallest unit of time there is.
From Old English wincian ‘to close the eyes, make a sign’, from PIE *weng- ‘to bend’ — the eyelid’s closing is itself a bending; German winken ‘to beckon’ is a cousin.
來自古英語 wincian(閉眼、示意),再往上是原始印歐語 *weng-(彎、曲)。這條「彎曲」的線索其實很傳神:眼皮闔下來就是一個彎的動作。同源的還有德語 winken(招手示意)——都在講「用一個小動作傳訊號」。注意:LDOCE 也把 tiddlywink(彈跳棋子)和 periwinkle(濱螺)的縮寫記成 wink,但那兩個是完全無關的字,不在這裡的四個義項中。
Wiktionary, entry ‘wink’ (Middle English wynken < Old English wincian < Proto-West Germanic *winkōn < PIE *weng-). The other two attested roots for this spelling — clippings of tiddlywink and periwinkle — do not appear among these senses.
Three branches
對人使的眼色(動詞與名詞)
這一族就是核心動作本身,加上它最主要的用途:傳一個只有你們兩人懂的訊息。
close one eye (signal) · verb · C2
To close and open one eye quickly, to send a message, share a joke, or show that something is a secret.
使眼色
光的一明一滅
把眼睛的開合直接借給光源:同樣是短促的明滅交替,只是動作的主角從人換成了燈。
flash on and off · verb · C2
To shine with a light that keeps flashing on and off.
閃爍
一眨眼那麼短的睡眠
從核心的「一瞬間閉眼」借走時間長度,用它當最小刻度來否定睡眠。
not sleep a wink · noun · C2
A very short bit of sleep. Used in not sleep a wink or not get a wink of sleep to say you did not sleep at all.
一點覺
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
winkverb詞源 1/ˈwɪŋk/
obsoleteTo close one's eyes in sleep.
obsoleteTo close one's eyes.
archaicUsually followed by at: to look the other way, to turn a blind eye.
archaicTo close one's eyes quickly and involuntarily; to blink.
To blink with only one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy. (When transitive, the object may be the eye being winked, or the message being conveyed.)
To gleam fitfully or intermittently; to twinkle; to flicker.
winknoun詞源 1/ˈwɪŋk/
An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.
A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.
A brief time; an instant.
The smallest possible amount.
A subtle allusion.
winknoun詞源 2/ˈwɪŋk/
Synonym of tiddlywink (“small disc used in the game of tiddlywinks”).
winknoun詞源 3/ˈwɪŋk/
slangSynonym of periwinkle (“type of mollusk”).
資料來源:英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary(CC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。