Have an inkling Have a vague intimation of; have a slight
knowledge of. Clearly the understanding of the source of this
little term is based on knowing what an inkling is. It sounds as
though it might be something small, like a jot or a tittle. It
also seems to exist in the same neck of the linguistic woods as
the names of other minor sensations, like tingling or tickling.
We can tingle or tickle, but we don't inkle, so where did
inkling derive from? These days, there isn't much we can do with
an inkling other than to have one. In the 13th century, when the
word was coined, inklings weren't had, they were heard.
Inklings, like tinklings, were small sounds. Specifically, an
inkling was an indistinct hearing of the use of one's own name.
This meaning is demonstrated in the earliest known use of the
word, in the Alliterative Romance of Alexander the Great, circa
1400–50: "[Alexander] Herd a nyngkiling of his name, & naytis
him [exerted himself] to ryse." So, if you heard an inkling your
senses were alerted to li