A small sea snail with a hard spiral shell, commonly eaten as food in coastal areas.
Shortened from Old English 'wincel' or 'wrinkle,' possibly from the appearance of its wrinkled shell. The word has been used for this creature since at least the 1300s in English.
Winkles were 'the poor man's seafood' for centuries—they cost almost nothing and required no cooking beyond boiling, making them one of the few proteins available to poor people living near coasts.
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