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An inkling is a slight idea about something — not full knowledge, just a small hint in your mind. You have an inkling that a test will be hard, or no inkling of someone’s plans. It is a gentle, rather friendly word, common in speech and stories. Though actually, it is almost always a faint idea, never a clear fact; if you already know, you do not have an inkling, you know. It is not connected with ink on a page, even though it looks as if it might be.
隱約的感覺、略知一二
組成From Middle English. Scholars think it most likely comes from an old verb inklen (to mention in a low voice) + -ing; some also talk of a split in hearing, an inkling from a ninkling. An older guess links it to a word for a slight hint. It is not from the writing-liquid ink.
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
inklingnoun詞源 1/ˈɪŋklɪŋ/
- 1
Usually preceded by forms of to give: a slight hint, implication, or suggestion given., A vague idea about something.
- [T]he present recalled the past, robed in the memories of its thousand dark and damning deeds of ignorance and superstition, and gave inklings of a brighter and better future; [...]
- You ought to know something of French habits, at your age. You must have read books that give an inkling of it.
- 2
Often preceded by forms of to get or to have: an imprecise idea or slight knowledge of something; a suspicion.
- 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?
- 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.
- 3
dialectalA desire, an inclination.
- I requested brother Weder to come up into the stand and commence the preaching. But, inasmuch as he had his own notion about such things, having an inkling towards Quakerism within him,—that is, not to speak until he felt moved to do so, and this inspiration was wanting,—he refused to preach, and remained on his seat in the congregation.
- A strong culture maintains the stability of its concepts or doctrines in various ways. One way is to convince its members that their inklings towards change are pathological. But actually the range of health is very broad, and the flexibility of the human mind is great. It is not pathological for belief-systems to change, even continuously, provided we keep them stable enough to allow adequate functioning.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。