核心畫面

One eye shutting and opening in a flash — from which grow a private signal, a light, and the smallest unit of time there is.

一隻眼睛快速地閉一下又睜開。整個字的重點在那個「一瞬間的開合」——短、快、而且是刻意的。從這個動作長出兩條路:一條是更多收起一隻眼睛快速地閉一下又睜開。整個字的重點在那個「一瞬間的開合」——短、快、而且是刻意的。從這個動作長出兩條路:一條是人與人之間的訊號(我對你眨個眼,我們兩個之間就有了別人不知道的默契),一條是光的明滅(燈忽亮忽暗,就像眼睛在一開一閉)。第三條路是把「眨一下眼」當成最短的時間單位——短到只夠眨一次眼,那還算睡覺嗎?

From the word’s history

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

原始詞典資料13 筆記錄

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/

  • 1

    obsoleteTo close one's eyes in sleep.

    • When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, For all the day they view things unrespected; But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
  • 2

    obsoleteTo close one's eyes.

    • Art thou ashamed to kiss? then wink again, And I will wink; so shall the day seem night […]
    • I kept my eyes shut, after once glancing at him; and, I protest, I thought I saw him still, though I winked as close as ever I could.
  • 3

    archaicUsually followed by at: to look the other way, to turn a blind eye.

    • Some trot about to bear false witness, and say anything for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity.
    • But man doth know / The ſpring, whence all things flow: / And yet, as though he knew it not, / His knowledge winks, and lets his humours reigne: / They make his life a conſtant blot, / And all the bloud of God to run in vain.
  • 4

    archaicTo close one's eyes quickly and involuntarily; to blink.

    • The pipes began to be puffed in a silence which had an air of severity; the more important customers, who drank spirits and sat nearest the fire, staring at each other as if a bet were depending on the first man who ‘’’winked’’’ […]
  • 5

    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.)

    • He winked at me. She winked her eye. He winked his assent.
    • Oliver saw Kit Carson wink at the lieutenant and Lucien Maxwell, as the speech reached them, and it was evident that these three leaders did not believe the Indian tales. Consequently he himself decided that the reports of "evil spirits" awaiting were all bosh.
  • 6

    To gleam fitfully or intermittently; to twinkle; to flicker.

    • Down in the bottoms the sycamore and cottonwood are casting off their yellowing leaves; but the white oak will cling to her gorgeous finery till the blizzard comes shrieking up the gulch to wrest it from her, or until the winking prairie-fire leaps among her branches, and mounting upward to the highest limbs, finally leaves the vain beauty a blackened skeleton.
    • Her kitchen is a series of Still Lives; the copper pans wink on the walls.

winknoun詞源 1/ˈwɪŋk/

  • 1

    An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.

  • 2

    A brief period of sleep; especially forty winks.

    • I couldn't bear to leave him where he is. I shouldn't sleep a wink for thinking of him.
    • I shan't sleep a wink.
  • 3

    A brief time; an instant.

  • 4

    The smallest possible amount.

    • It’s many’s the time I shot the selfsame rifiie before, and it’s many ’s the time after, but niver a wink of the same have I seen. 'T was the sight of a lifetime.
  • 5

    A subtle allusion.

    • The film includes a wink to wartime rationing.

winknoun詞源 2/ˈwɪŋk/

  • 1

    Synonym of tiddlywink (“small disc used in the game of tiddlywinks”).

winknoun詞源 3/ˈwɪŋk/

  • 1

    slangSynonym of periwinkle (“type of mollusk”).

    • “I buy my winks,” said one, “at Billingsgate, at 3s. and 4s. the wash. A wash is about a bushel. […]”

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。