Where does the expression 40 winks come from?

Answer 1

First, the dating of the first appearance of this expression in print to 1828 may be correct, but the part about it being in a George Eliot book is bogus. In 1828 she was only NINE! (Her first book actually came out in 1856.)
http://www.bartleby.com/65/el/Eliot-Ge.html

At any rate, we do have a few pointers about how and why the expression came about

The use of "forty" as a round (indefinite) number for a significant period of time is familiar in English from biblical uses, especially in "forty days (and nights)" and "forty years".

This may have some special significance in the biblical expressions, but the person who coined the phrase "(catch) forty winks" (first attested in print in 1828, I am told) probably was just appealing to the general idea. Since the numbers is used for SIGNIFICANT lengths of time, the point may well have been an ironic contrast with "winks" (very brief naps/snatches of sleep), as if referring to a significant amount of sleep. (This meaning of "wink(s)" goes back to the 14th century.)

As for the origin of the biblical expressions -- a fair guess is that 40 YEARS came first, as a round figure for "a generation", that is, the time someone takes to grow to their prime,** and/or the time it takes for the shift from one generation of people to another to substantially take place. (Elsewhere the number 70 is used for a "generation", but then more as the full span of a lifetime.)
**Note that we still echo this notion in the expression "Life begins at forty!"

Biblical examples (some may be literally, but most are probably 'round numbers'):
1) 40 days (and nights) - length of the rainfall during Noah's flood; length of a period of fasting and preparation (Moses on Sinai [twice], Elijah near Sinai, Jesus in the desert); length of the spies' mission into the Promised land; time from Jesus' resurrection to his ascension
2) 40 years - length of each major part of Moses' life (birth to flight from Egypt, to his return to lead the people out, to his death); length of Israel's wandering in the desert ("until the whole GENERATION that came out of Egypt had died!"); length of the reign/rule of various leaders of Israel (Eli, Saul, David, Solomon, etc); time from the death of Jesus' till the predicted fall of Jerusalem ("this generation will not pass away until all this takes place")

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayingsf.htm
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=f&p=11

http://www.searchgodsword.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T6449
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_(number)#In_religion
lists biblical examples

Answer 2

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This is the best I could come up with: Of course 40 winks means a nap or short sleep, the word wink being a reference to sleep since the 13th-14th centuries. The number 40 is believed to have had some esoteric, mystical properties with many literary references for centuries. In the Bible it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, the Hebrews wandered the desert for 40 years etc. There was even a reference in an ancient text to a "shield of 40" as being impenetrable. Sorry I couldn't find anything more specific but I learned a lot by looking.

Answer 3

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RE:
Where does the expression 40 winks come from?

Answer 4

I found this..... and it sounds as good as anything else, I guess

The novelist George Eliot wrote in 1828 of "having 'forty winks' on the sofa in the library". It's the first known use in print. This passage seems to sum up thoughts about its origin: Forty used to be not only a precise number but also an indefinite term for a large number. There are frequent biblical references to 'forty days', which means no more than 'for a long time', and because of this frequency the number 40 came to have an almost sacrosanct quality. It is probably this sense, jocularly applied, that lies behind 'forty winks', a wink itself being a short spell of sleep.
("Wink" has been used to denote a short sleep since the 14th century. When you think about it, you do shut an eye when you wink, but only one. Why not "blink" for a short sleep, and "forty blinks"? It's a curious language!)

Answer 5

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Answer 6

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