inkling
an intuition, a feeling
TRANSLATION
inkling = die Ahnung, die Andeutung not the least inkling = nicht die leiseste Ahnung LEO
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Sir Michael, quoted in an article in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper (March 26) commented: "the Index Theorem provides a Trojan horse that mathematicians have used to get into physics and vice versa. When we first did it, we had no INKLING that this would follow."
(http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_04_04.html - April 2004)
(http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_04_04.html - April 2004)
Did you
know?
in-kling
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
Typical Usage:
"I had an inkling that they would stop the project."
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.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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
Typical Usage:
"I had an inkling that they would stop the project."
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.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
