If something makes you feel squinchy, what does that mean? The word itself has a sort of visceral sound to me, making me think of a vague nausea, a twisting of the stomach. But oddly enough....
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... it has more to do with the face than the gut.
According to Merriam-Webster, squinch has a couple of general definitions. As a verb, squinch means to screw up the eyes or face, or squint, or to make more compact or to crouch down or draw together. As to its origin, Oxford Lexico offers that this version of squinch dates to early 19th century and might have originated as a blend of "squeeze" and "pinch."
But there's more.
Squinch can also be used as a noun. In this case, says M-W, a squinch is (and I quote) "a support (such as an arch, lintel, or corbeling) carried across the corner of a room under a superimposed mass."
Ooookay.
After reading that, I needed to find some visual examples of architectural/engineering squinches, because I had absolutely no idea what this definition meant. Thanks to Wikimedia, I found a drawing of a squinch...
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| A squinch! Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
...and a lovely photo of a brick-and-tile-decorated squinch.
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| A decorated squinch! Andrehmarouti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
Oxford Lexico notes that squinch as a noun is a late 15th century alteration of the obsolete word scunch, which is an abbreviation of scuncheon, which, according to Collins Dictionary is "the inner part of a door jamb or window frame." Collins goes on to add that scuncheon dates to 15th century and is from the Old French escoinson, and, oh dear, I'm stopping here, because I'm starting to feel a little squinchy.
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| Definitely squinchy... Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels |
https://www.silberstudios.com/what-is-the-squinch-and-how-will-it-improve-your-portrait-photography/
ReplyDeleteHi Liz! Thank you for that link!
ReplyDeleteThe emotional interpretation of "squinch" in that post is interesting... I'll quote here, in case folks are curious: "[H]eadshot photographer Peter Hurley... describes squinching as narrowing the distance between the lower eyelid and the pupil. This shows confidence through our eyes. When we are confident, we tend to squinch."
The article goes on say that, in a squinch, the eyebrows should not move, which is different from the Merriam-Webster definition. But, hey, whatever works! :-)