inkling

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 8, 2010 is: inkling • \INK-ling\ • noun 1 : a slight indication or suggestion : hint, clue 2 : a slight knowledge or vague notion Examples: "She gained some inkling of the character of Hanson's life when, half asleep, she looked out into the dining-room at six o'clock and saw him silently finishing his breakfast." (Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie) Did you know? Originating in English in the early 16th century, "inkling" derives from Middle English "yngkiling," meaning "whisper or mention," and perhaps further from the verb "inclen," meaning "to hint at." It also shares a distant relationship with the Old English noun "inca," meaning "suspicion." An early sense of the word meant "a faint perceptible sound or undertone" or "rumor," but now people usually use the word to refer to a tiny bit of knowledge or information that a person receives about something. One related word you might not have heard of is the verb "inkle," a back-formation of "inkling" that occurs in some British English dialects and means "to have an idea or notion of." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.