# winking **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 22, 1999, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173 "1999-10-22T16:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Pete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pete)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/1 "1999-10-22T16:27:00Z")
How did a wink come to be a flirtatious move? Who was the person who first interpreted a wink as “hey baby” or for that matter, who first saw it as a sign of recognition? * * * I don’t know who first said “everyone’s a critic,” but I think it’s a really stupid saying. ---
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/2 "1999-10-22T16:42:00Z")
You mean all this time they’ve been flirting with me? I just thought they had something stuck in their eye! No wonder my sex life’s been suffering. ---
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Timothy\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timothy_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/3 "1999-10-22T18:26:00Z")
Asking why a wink means flirtation is pretty much a question without an answer. You might as well ask why a shrug means “I don’t know”, or why “I don’t know” means what it does. Gestures are an adjunct to language and evolved way back in the mists of time. Mind you, just as everybody doesn’t speak the same language, so too do gestures mean different things in different places. In North America, if you make the “Okay” sign (making a ring with your thumb and forefinger), everybody knows what it means. But in France it means almost the opposite; it means “Zero” or “No good”. I also seem to recall that in Italy it means something obscene, since the circle represents part of the female anatomy. Why don’t you try searching for “gestures” on an internet search engine? Maybe they’ll give some alternative meanings for winking. Come to think of it, a wink doesn’t always mean flirtation. Sometimes it means, “I’m not being serious”. And let us not forget the old “Wink, wink, nudge, nudge” of Monty Python fame. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/4 "1999-10-22T18:59:00Z")
It’s not the wink, its the expression on the face when its done. ---
**Author:** ![Stephen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Stephen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephen)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/5 "1999-10-22T20:07:00Z")
> [@](#): > > How did a wink come to be a flirtatious move? Somebody wanted to make a subtle, but noticable gesture and somebody else caught on. > [@](#): > > Who was the person who first interpreted a wink as “hey baby” That would be Og of the cave by the twisted tree. > [@](#): > > or for that matter, who first saw it as a sign of recognition? That would also be Og. She was pretty quick for a proto-human. * * * Stephen [Stephen’s Website](http://stephen.fathom.org) Satellite Hunting 1.1.0 visible satellite pass prediction shareware available for download at [Satellite Hunting](http://stephen.fathom.org/sathunt.html) ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/6 "1999-10-22T20:33:00Z")
On a side note, I’ve heard that the shrug gesture came into existence around the time of the French Revolution. It was an allusion to the Guillotine. Originally a gesture that meant something like “I don’t want to tell you, because I’m afraid I’ll get my head chopped off”, it somehow became “I don’t know”. I could be completely pulling this outta my ass though, so please someone tell me you’ve heard the same etymology? ---
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/7 "1999-10-22T21:04:00Z")
Pete, After careful consideration, I’ve devised an experiment. 1)Go to local bar. 2)Drink 13 beers in rapid succession. 3)Find mirror. 4)Try to blink; if both eyelids close, repeat step 2. If only one eyelid closes, proceed. 5)Find someone of the opposite sex (or the same sex, whichever dots your I’s) and repeat step 4. 6)Observe results. I feel these conditions faithfully replicate those under which the vast majority of flirting occurs. Please post your results. * * * “I’m still here, asshole!”-Angus Bethune ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/8 "1999-10-22T23:37:00Z")
😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 1999, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/9 "1999-10-23T03:19:00Z")
Cecil covered the “OK” gesture as obscene – apparently Brazil is the place. Couldn’t find it in the archives, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Abe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f1d935/32.png) [@Abe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winking/4173/10 "1999-10-25T05:57:00Z")
## The O.K. gesture is obscene in a few parts of Italy and Greece that I know of. It is supposed to represent the anus, not the vagina. ## Abe “For what is myth, but the deconstructive prose of a missing literary critic who lisps?” –Harry Harrison