inkling

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English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɪŋk.lɪŋ/
  • Audio (UK):(file)

Etymology 1

From the gerund of Middle English inklen, inclen (“to give an inkling of, hint at, mention, utter in an undertone”), from inke (“apprehension, misgiving”), from Old English inca (“doubt, suspicion”), from Proto-Germanic *inkô (“ache, regret”), from Proto-Indo-European *yenǵ- (“illness”). Synchronically analyzable as inkle +‎ -ing.

Noun

inkling (plural inklings)

  1. A slight knowledge or suspicion; hint.
    • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xxi:
      Of the thing that sustains him through trials man has no inkling, much less knowledge, at the time.
    • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 1:
      Living organisms had existed on earth, without ever knowing why, for over three thousand million years before the truth finally dawned on one of them. His name was Charles Darwin. To be fair, others had had inklings of the truth, but it was Darwin who first put together a coherent and tenable account of why we exist.
  2. (dialect) Inclination, desire.

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

inkling

  1. present participle of inkle

Anagrams

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