The other day I got to thinking about the wink. Not really of the act of blinking one eyelid, nor the definition of the word, wink, but of the meaning associated with act. You know, a unspoken message of subtle humor, sarcasm, or an inside joke… Sure there are other meanings, but they are all fairly similar. But I think this “inside joke” meaning, is part of the European culture, in fact, I think it is of Northern European origin. And you’ll never guess why.

But I wanted to make sure, so I sent out an email to every non-American and non-European I know, and actually I was surprised at how many I knew. Granted, my ad hoc attempt was anything but empirical, and so I submit my hypothesis to you, gentle reader, to see what insight you may have on the origins of the wink.

The reason why I think it is a European tradition is because I think the wink was associated with the Germanic/Nordic god, Odin. He was a wizard and the original model for Gandalf. He was mysterious, unpredictable and misunderstood. He had a humorous side, but his humor matched his personality, as it was often subtle, ironic, and well… misunderstood.

Odin also only had one eye.

So I’m thinking that whenever someone is trying to convey Odin’s kind of humor, they could simply close one eye to convey that meaning, and subtly pass on this message. So there’s my hypothesis, and my initial polling hints that I may be onto something. Of course, if this meaning associated with a wink is a thousand or so years old, then you’d expect it to have branched out of its homeland, but maybe not cover the globe.

This meaning has completely covered Europe (and obviously America) and has pushed into the Arabic world. However, it is foreign in Japan and East Asia. Where this border is drawn is something I’ll probably never know, but if you have something to add, please drop me a line.

Postscript …

What is even more interesting, is that chimps have the same expressions. In fact, much of the higher mammals can tell each other’s emotions. Granted, humans do it the best, but when a chimp is laughing, you know it.

Most people believe that since primates are so social, knowing each other’s emotions was important, and facial expressions grew/evolved out of that. This is also why they think that most communication by “early man” was almost sign language with lots of gestures to go along with the auditory signals… just watch some Italian’s talk, and you’ll realize we haven’t strayed far from that tree.

This is why I could be wrong on the whole wink thing … it could go back to that time, in which case, everyone in the world would understand the meaning. But I think I’m on to something…

My sister, Tiffany, had some thoughts:

Interesting thought about the origin of the wink. I don’t know about that, but what I find completely fascinating is that all societies have the same facial expressions— happy, sad, surprised, etc. All societies understand it. I don’t remember where I saw it, but this group of scientists took a bunch of photos of people doing different facial expressions to a tribe that hadn’t had any contact with the outside world and the tribes people understood the photos. If you find out, let me know, I’d be interested to know.

My good friend, Mieko Tomizawa, from Japan emailed me thusly:

First of all, we (the Japanese) don’t have a culture of Wink, so we don’t do a wink to someone. So, we may not understand wink meaning well, because in Japan, one of the biggest meaning of the wink is thought to be favor. For example, when a man does a wink to the woman, it thinks that there is favor. But we never wink between the Japanese. If the Japanese man does a wink to the Japanese woman, it seems to be very strange.

My brother-in-law, Mehdi said:

The wink has multiple meanings in Farsi… one of which is how you describe it. The other, and the main one I’m familiar with is a take or an extension of the ‘inside joke’ variety. It’s used when one wants to lure someone or seduce someone into doing something… commonly used by lovers to silently signal each other in front of others without being noticed.

Just got an email from Mel, who said:

That‘s an interesting view of the “wink”.
My brother was just asking me the other day what does the wink actually signifies or what does it actually mean if you wink at someone. This is what lead me to your website.

Being from the far east (Philippine Islands) we are not unfamiliar with the wink, infact it is a very common practice. Winking = an inside joke but more commonly winking is usually associated with the opposite sex. Winking suggest “interests or attraction”. A way to say Hi or Hello to a girl using your eyes. An initial signal that you are interested in her, also as an indicator if you can go further to the next step or not.

A scenario of this is when you wink at a girl it lets her know you are interested in her, if she smiles back at you, you have a GO to say Hi & introduce yourself, if she ignored you then she’s not interested & move on.

On Christmas Eve, 2005, Mike McCann sent me the following email:

My father’s final communication to me was a wink. It happened in the ER. He was having a stroke. He smiled, raised his head a bit, looked me in the eye, winked, smiled, and layed his head back down on the pillow. He went into a coma a few hours later and died three days after that at our home while still in a coma.

Along with my mom, I took care of my dad for about five years previously. He was virtually paralyzed, and depended on support from us for everything. The one thing he had was his mind, a beautiful mind. He was the smartest man I‘ve ever met, to this day, a documented genius, and I’ve been haunted by that wink to this day.

What I believe he was trying to convey was a sense of “comfort” to me; for me not to be sad, and not to fell distressed. I hope that‘s what it meant!

Merry Christmas to all who “catch” such a wink.