verb/kli.ɲe/
to squint
Related: cligner des yeux, clignoter
Inherited from Old French clignier, clingnier, itself probably from a Vulgar Latin *clūdiniare < *clūdināre, a derivative of clūdō, clūdere, variant of claudō (“close, shut”) (cf. French clore); it may have been phonetically influenced (transition of -ui- to -i-) in early French by descendants of clināre (cf. Old French cliner), or more likely guigner.