----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Ylvisaker" : For what it's worth, in American English, generally, a squint is what one does with one's eyes when looking into bright light without such protection as sunglasses or shades. Some people, who have spent years in the outdoors without proper vision protection, develop a "permanent" squint. Photographically, the equivalent would be stopping down the iris of the lens of your camera. that was my impression too, but it seems previously in the US (1900's) the word had an entirely different meaning to the general population and its meaning is only retained in ophthalmology where it still means to be affected with strabismus/to be cross-eyed. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/squint other examples: gay. happy bug. insect doctor. teacher enthusiasm. abuse here we have no forests (misspelt by almost all Australians as forrest due to the fame of the name) - instead we have the bush. In other parts of the world, the bush has an entirely different meaning. k ;)
