The History of the Wink: A Short, yet Eye-Opening Story

Let’s take a moment to appreciate one of humanity’s most mysterious and versatile expressions: the wink. It is an eyebrow-raising-twinkling gesture which, astoundingly, has managed to stand for everything from affection to mischief to, occasionally, something your creepy uncle does at Thanksgiving dinner when he’s had too much eggnog. But where did the wink originate from, and just how did it grow into this ultimate tool of secret communication, bad flirting, and well, sarcasm? Let’s find out.

Early Winks: When Blinking Got Ambitious

The story of the wink most likely starts where all good stories start-with a caveman who got dust in his eye. Some anthropologists speculate that the first wince was nothing more than an ambitious blink. Picture Ugg, our early ancestor, attempting to blink to rid his eye of a stray chunk of mammoth fur and realizing he’d just closed one eye. He looked across the fire pit at Ooga, who interpreted the gesture to be the prehistoric version of, “Hey, girl, you want to share this mammoth leg with me?” And thus, the flirtatious wink was born.

It wasn’t long before winking spread like wildfire, which is impressive considering these people hadn’t figured out fire yet. One eye closing while the other stayed open? Absolute magic. It was like the first…