inky

See also: Inky and -inký

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én

Ancient Greek ἐν (en)

Ancient Greek ἐν- (en-)

Proto-Indo-European *keh₂w-?

Proto-Hellenic *káyyō

Ancient Greek καίω (kaíō)

Ancient Greek καυστός (kaustós)

Ancient Greek ἔγκαυστον (énkauston)bor.

Late Latin encaustumder.

Old French enquebor.

Middle English ynke

English ink

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Germanic *-gaz

Proto-West Germanic *-g

Old English -iġ

Middle English -y

English -y

English inky

From ink + -y.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋki/
Audio (US): (file)
Rhymes: -ɪŋki

Adjective

inky (comparative inkier, superlative inkiest)

Of the colour of ink, especially black ink; dark.
- 1870, The Shamrock, volume 8, page 18:
  One black and gusty night, when the moon was down and the inky clouds swept fiercely overhead through the starless void; when the cruel wind raged and tore, and the sleety rain came swirlingly, drivingly down […]
- 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 6, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →OCLC:
  Tenderly she bore him back through the inky jungle to where the tribe lay, and for many days and nights she sat guard beside him, bringing him food and water, and brushing the flies and other insects from his cruel wounds.
- 2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 December 2024:
  We see documentary footage (the trudging homeless) and an animated map—an inky line movies from Paris to Marseilles, from there to Oran, and finally to Casablanca, where the lucky ones escape via Lisbon and the rest “wait…and wait…and wait.”
Spattered or stained with ink.
(obsolete, literary) Dark-skinned; black.
- 1877, Henry Kendall, “Ode to a Black Gin”, in The Australian Town and Country Journal, page 24:
  The gloved and jewelled bards who sing / Of Pippa, Maud, and Guinevere, / Have hardly done the 'handsome thing' / For you, my inky Cytherea.