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Forty winks.
7 Answers
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?
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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.
�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.
(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!
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!
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