Forty winks.

[Pudcat]

Why do we say I am going to have forty winks when we propose to have a short nap. Why not thirty winks or fifty winks?

[hippyhoppy]

My father-out-law said this to my son a couple of years ago on holiday... and my adorable son proceeded to blink 40 times... then said 'come on poppa.. I've done 40 winks - lets go'..

;-)

[Pudcat]

I can beleive that !!!

[Quizmonster]

A �wink' has meant a short nap since the 1300s, appearing as such in Langland's Piers Ploughman, for example.
�40' was a common figure chosen to mean an indeterminate number in past times...eg Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness, the idea that - if it rains on St Swithin's Day - it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights, Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, our word �quarantine' comes from the French for forty and so on.
I also suspect the �40' here might refer to the number of minutes involved, since 40 of them seem ideal. Any fewer and it does not fulfil its purpose of refreshing you and any more just leaves you feeling even more tired, in my experience.

[Pudcat]

Thank you Q/M. I should have know that you as usual would know the answer and what you say seems very plausible, although I don't quite see where the French for " quarantine" fits in.
Best Wishes
Pudcat

[TCL-MUMPING]

I thinkQM is showing that the number forty has its influence in other countries too, why forty days, why not a month for example? I had a wee look in the Chambers online dictionary and it says quarantine is of Italian origin by the way.

[Quizmonster]

(Thanks for your kind comment, Pudcat.)

As TCL suggests above, the idea of forty was generally just an approximation. In law, as far back as the 1600s, it referred to the time a widow - eg one such as a Dowager Duchess - was allowed to stay in the marital mansion after her husband's death before relinquishing it to his son and heir.
Samuel Pepys has an interesting entry in the famous Diary in 1663 which reads, "All ships...to perform their quarantine for thirty days...contrary to the import of the word though...it signifies now the thing not the time spent in doing it."

So...forty...thirty...what the heck, just a period of time!

[janbee]

I thought quarantine is derived from the Italian word quarantena, meaning a 40 day period