I was at a meeting today where the speaker used the word "inkle" to talk about proactively letting people know what was going on so that they'd not be surprised. Then she said it came from the card game called 500, which I've not played. Has anyone here played that card game? Does that definition make sense given the game? Has anyone heard the word used generally as in this context?

I've never heard this word. It seems to be obsolete. Is it used as a noun, verb, or what?

There is a word inkling, which means, according to Dictionary.com
1. a slight suggestion or indication; hint; intimation: They hadn't given us an inkling of what was going to happen.
2. a vague idea or notion; slight understanding: They didn't have an inkling of how the new invention worked.

The word is apparently from an obsolete verb inkle, to hint.

Inkling is a fairly common word, at least in Lancashire, but I have never heard it used as a verb, inkle. It makes sense though, and I like it. Time to un-obsolete it!

at least in Lancashire

Here in the States, too.

I thought it might be a verb back-formed from the noun inkling and that's what I found in M-W and the OED Online.

quote:

• M-W: One related word you might not have heard of is the verb "inkle," a back-formation of "inkling" that occurs in some British English dialects and means "to have an idea or notion of."
  
  
• OED Online:
  inkle,v.
  rare
  1. trans. To utter or communicate in an undertone or whisper, to hint, give a hint of. In quot. 1340-70 ‘to inkle the truth’, (parenthetically) = to mention or tell the truth, ‘sooth to say’. In quots. 1901, 1904 a back-formation from INKLING 2.
  
  1340-70 Alisaunder 616 A brem brasen borde bringes hee soone, Imped in iuory, too incle {th}e truthe.
  
  1901 S. BUTLER Erewhon Revisited 42 People like being deceived, but they also like to have an inkling of their own deception, and you never inkle them.
  
  1904 HARDY Dynasts I. I. vi. 57 Thou art young, and dost not heed the Cause of things Which some of us have inkled to thee here.
  
  2. dial. To get an inkling or notion (of).
  [In this sense app. a back-formation from INKLING 3, 4.]
  
  1866 BLACKMORE Cradock Nowell xxix. (1883) 153 His marriage settlement and its effects, they could only inkle of.
  
  1868 ATKINSON Cleveland Gloss., Inkle. 1. To form notions, guesses or projects..2. To form wishes or inclinations..for this or that gratification, to wit.
  
  1869 BLACKMORE Lorna D. lii. (1879) 340 She inkled what it was.

The noun inkle is a type of linen tape or braid or the thread or yarn used to make that tape or braid. Wikipedia has an article on inkle weaving.

I was surprised the word was so old. Note, though, that the OED says it is rare. Apparently someone is trying to bring it back.

Inkling, yes, I would have known, and it's quite common here. But this was inkle, and it was used as a verb. She said she was inkling with the nursing community, which meant that she had been disseminating her work so as not to surprise them.

Since she probably wasn't using the OED's obsolete definition for it, she must have just been using the definition from the card game...which I don't understand because I don't know that particular card game.

In the game, "inkle" means "bid". It seems plausible to me that this is an extension of the "To utter or communicate in an undertone or whisper, to hint, give a hint of" meaning that's in the OED.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,