different between inky vs winky

English

Etymology

ink +? -y

Adjective

inky (comparative inkier, superlative inkiest)

1. Of the colour of ink, especially black ink; dark.
   • 1870, The Shamrock (volume 8, page 18)

     One black and gusty night, when the moon was down and the inky clouds swept fiercely overhead through the starless void; when the cruel wind raged and tore, and the sleety rain came swirlingly, drivingly down […]

   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6

     Tenderly she bore him back through the inky jungle to where the tribe lay, and for many days and nights she sat guard beside him, bringing him food and water, and brushing the flies and other insects from his cruel wounds.

2. Spattered or stained with ink.
3. (obsolete, literary) Dark-skinned; black.

Synonyms

• (dark coloured): black, dark, murky
• (dark-skinned): black, dusky, sable, sooty, swarthy

Antonyms

• bright
• clear
• whitened

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

wink +? -y

Adjective

winky (comparative more winky, superlative most winky)

1. tending to wink; winking

Noun

winky (plural winkies)

1. An emoticon or smiley that shows a winking face.

Etymology 2

Perhaps the same as etymology 1, above. The Oxford English Dictionary, however, suggests derivation from winkle, a variant of periwinkle, plus diminutive -y. Attested since the 1950s.

Noun

winky (plural winkies)

1. (slang, childish) the penis.

References

• “winky, n.2.”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, January 2018