winkle

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 24, 2010 is: winkle • \WINK-ul\ • verb 1 : to displace, remove, or evict from a position -- usually used with out 2 : to obtain or draw out by effort -- usually used with out Examples: "In 1483 a new English king, Richard III, tried again to winkle Henry out of Brittany, but he found that the young man was now a significant pawn on the European chessboard." (Nigel Calder, The English Channel) Did you know? If you have ever extracted a winkle from its shell, then you understand how the verb "winkle" came to be. The word "winkle" is short for "periwinkle," the name of a marine or freshwater snail. "Periwinkle" is ultimately derived from Latin "pina," the name of a mussel, and Old English "wincle," a snail shell. Evidently the personnel of World War I's Allied Powers found their duty of finding and removing the enemy from the trenches analogous to extracting a well-entrenched snail and began using "winkle" to describe their efforts. The action of "winkling the enemy out" was later extended to other situations, such as "winkling information out of someone." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.