(ĭngˈklĭng)
noun- A slight hint or indication.
- A slight understanding or vague idea or notion.
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. 