Clingy means holding on too tightly for comfort. A clingy child, clingy partner, clingy fabric.
Of a child it is a normal developmental stage and passes; of an adult it is a complaint about neediness. Of cloth it means sticking to the body, and of clingfilm it is the whole point. Note cling, and that the too tightly is what makes the word a criticism.
1adjectiveclingyHolding on too tightly for comfort.
“Our toddler has become very clingy and cries whenever I leave the room.”
clingy is a quality of holding on.
Proto-Germanic
*klinganą
Proto-West Germanic
*klingan
Old English
clingan — to adhere
Middle English
clingen
English
cling
English, today
clingy
From cling + -y. cling comes from Middle English clingen, from Old English clingan (“to adhere”), from Proto-West Germanic klingan, from Proto-Germanic klinganą. Cognate with Danish klynge (“to cluster, to crowd”). Compare clump.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA