kink

Meanings

Verb

• To laugh loudly.
• To gasp for breath as in a severe fit of coughing.
• To form a kink or twist.
• To be formed into a kink or twist.

Noun

• A convulsive fit of coughing or laughter; a sonorous indraft of breath; a whoop; a gasp of breath caused by laughing, coughing, or crying.
• A tight curl, twist, or bend in a length of thin material, hair etc.
• A difficulty or flaw that is likely to impede operation, as in a plan or system.
• An unreasonable notion; a crotchet; a whim; a caprice.
• Peculiarity or deviation in sexual behaviour or taste.
• A positive 1-soliton solution to the Sine–Gordon equation.

Related

Opposite words

• normophilia

Origin

• From Middle English kinken, kynken, from Old English *cincian (attested in cincung), from Proto-West Germanic *kinkōn, from Proto-Germanic *kinkōną ("to laugh"), from Proto-Indo-European *gang- ("to mock, jeer, deride"), related to Old English canc ("jeering, scorn, derision"). Cognate with Dutch kinken ("to kink, cough").
• From Dutch kink ("a twist or curl in a rope"), from Proto-Germanic *kenk-, *keng-, from Proto-Indo-European *gengʰ- ("to turn, wind, braid, weave"). Compare Middle Low German kinke ("spiral screw, coil"), Old Norse kikna ("to bend backwards, sink at the knee"), Icelandic kengur ("a bend or bight; a metal crook"). Probably related to kick.