winken

From Middle High German winken, from Old High German winken, from Proto-West Germanic *winkijan, alternative form of *winkōn.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪŋkŋ̩/, /ˈvɪŋkən/

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winken (weak or mixed, third-person singular present winkt, past tense winkte, past participle gewunken or (original but now less common) gewinkt, auxiliary haben)

1. to wave
   • 1796, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, chapter 9, in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre [Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship]‎, volume 2, page 99:

     Man war nicht lange gefahren, als der Schiffer stille hielt, um mit Erlaubnis der Gesellschaft noch jemand einzunehmen, der am Ufer stand und gewinkt hatte.

     The boat had not been sailing long when the skipper stopped to take in someone else who had been standing on the shore waving, with the permission of the company.

2. to beckon

• The originally weak verb started to develop alternative strong forms in Middle High German. These were long considered dialectal or colloquial, but the past participle gewunken has become standard and is increasingly replacing the now rarer gewinkt.^[1][2]

• Winken
• Winker

• abwinken
• durchwinken
• zuwinken
• Winkerkrabbe
• Wink

• “winken” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “winken” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “winken” in Duden online
• “winken” in OpenThesaurus.de

From Middle Low German winken, from Old Saxon winkōn, from Proto-Germanic *winkōną. See also wenken and wanken from the same root. Cognate with German winken, English wink, Dutch wenken.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪŋkən/, /ˈvɪŋkən/

winken (past singular wunk, past participle wunken, auxiliary verb hebben)

1. to wave
2. to beckon

• wanken
• wenken
• Winker