inklingとは

意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received 発音, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋklɪŋ/
• ハイフネーション: inkl‧ing

語源 1

From Middle English ningkiling, nyngkiling (“hint, slight indication; mention, whisper”),^[1] and then either:

• possibly a variant of nikking, nyckyng (“hint, slight indication; mention, whisper”),^[2] possibly from nikken (“to mark (a text) for correction (?)”)^[3] + -ing, -inge (suffix forming gerunds from verbs);^[4] or
• from inklen (“to mention (in a low voice); to tell (the truth)”) [and other forms]^[5] + -ing, -inge; inklen may be derived from inca, inke (“dread, fear; doubt; danger, risk (?)”),^[6] from 古期英語 inca (“doubt, uncertainty; suspicion; fear; cause for complaint, grievance, grudge, ill-will, offence; quarrel; occasion, opportunity”), from Proto-Germanic *inkô (“ache; grief; regret”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eng-, *yenǵ- (“illness”). The English word would then be analysable as inkle +‎ -ing.^[7]

Sense 3 (“desire, inclination”) may have been influenced by incline (“to tend to believe または do something”) or French enclin (“inclined, prone”).^[7]

名詞

inkling (複数形 inklings)

1. Usually preceded by forms of to give: a slight hint, implication, or suggestion given.

   Synonym: intimation

2. Often preceded by forms of to get or to have: an imprecise idea or slight knowledge of something; a suspicion.
   • 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: Printed for Nath[aniel] Ponder […], OCLC 228725984; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, OCLC 5190338:

     If that a Pearl may in a Toads-head dwell, / And may be found too in an Oiſter-ſhell; / If things that promiſe nothing, do contain / What better is then Gold; who will diſdain / (That have an inkling of it,) there to look, / That they may find it?

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: Printed for Nath[aniel] Ponder […], OCLC 228725984; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan: Being a Fac-simile Reproduction of the First Edition, London: Elliot Stock […], 1875, OCLC 222146756, page 17:

     This man then meeting with Chriſtian, and having ſome inckling of him, for Chriſtians ſetting forth from the City of Deſtruction was much noiſed abroad, not only in the Town, where he dwelt, but alſo it began to be the Town-talk in ſome other places.

   • 1911 October, John Galsworthy, “Quality”, in The Inn of Tranquillity: Studies and Essays, London: William Heinemann, published 1912, OCLC 247335479, page 15:

     These thoughts, of course, came to me later, though even when I was promoted to him, at the age of perhaps fourteen, some inkling haunted me of the dignity of himself and brother. For to make boots—such boots as he made—seemed to me then, and still seems to me, mysterious and wonderful.

   • 1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, “निर्बल के बल राम [Nirbala ke bala Rama]”, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, OCLC 875661731, part I, page 171:

     Of the thing that sustains him through trials man has no inkling, much less knowledge, at the time.

   • 1976, Richard Dawkins, “Why are People?”, in The Selfish Gene, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN; 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1989 (1999 printing), →ISBN, 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.

3. (Britain, dialectal) A desire, an inclination.

語源 2

From inkle +‎ -ing.

動詞

inkling

1. present participle of inkle

参照

アナグラム

• kilning, klining, linking