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inkling - 4 dictionary results

ink⋅ling

[ingk-ling]
–noun
1. a slight suggestion or indication; hint; intimation: They hadn't given us an inkling of what was going to happen.
2. a vague idea or notion; slight understanding: They didn't have an inkling of how the new invention worked.

Origin:
1505–15; obs. inkle to hint (ME inklen) + -ing 1 ; akin to OE inca suspicion
in·kling   (ĭng'klĭng)   
n.  
  1. A slight hint or indication.
  2. A slight understanding or vague idea or notion.

[Probably alteration of Middle English (a) ningkiling, (a) hint, suggestion, possibly alteration of nikking, from nikken, to mark a text for correction, from nik, notch, tally, perhaps from variant of Old French niche, niche; see niche.]
Word History: Inkling has nothing to do with ink, but it may have something to do with niches. Our story begins with the Old French (and Modern French) word niche, meaning "niche." It is possible that in Old French a variant form existed that was borrowed into Middle English as nik, meaning "a notch, tally." This word is probably related to the Middle English word nikking, meaning "a hint, slight indication," or possibly "a whisper, mention." Nikking appears only once, in a Middle English text composed around 1400. In another copy of the same text the word ningkiling appears, which may be a variant of nikking. This is essentially our word inkling already, the only major change being an instance of what is called false splitting, whereby people understood a ningkiling as an ingkiling. They did the same thing with a napron, getting an apron.

Inkling

In"kling\, n. A hint; an intimation.

The least inkling or glimpse of this island. --Bacon.

They had some inkling of secret messages. --Clarendon.
Language Translation for : inkling
Spanish: idea, sospecha,
German: die Ahnung,
Japanese: 感づくこと

inkling 
c.1400, apparently from the gerund of M.E. verb inclen "utter in an undertone" (c.1340), which perhaps is related to O.E. inca "doubt, suspicion."
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