I did it, again

So Many Words. So Little Space

The downside to using period sources for scroll wording is that sometimes I don't know when to stop. I really love the fluid language that they, at least the English, used in royal proclamations. I love the sound of the cadence of the repeated phrases and the redundancy.

Know ye that of our especiall grace, certaine science and meere motion, we have given and granted, and by these presents for us, our heires and successours, doe give and graunt to our trustie and welbeloved servaunt Sir Humphrey Gilbert of Compton, in our castle of Devonshire Knight, and to his heires and assignee for ever, free libertie and licence from time to time, and at all times for ever hereafter, to discover, finde, search out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countreys and territories not actually possessed of any Christian prince or people, as to him, his heirs & assignee, and to every or any of them, shall seeme good: and the fame to have, hold, occupie and enjoy to him, his heires and assignee for ever, with all commodities, jurisdictions, and royalties both by sea and land; and the said sir Humfrev and all such as from time to time by licence of us, our heiress and successours, shall goe and travell thither, to inhabits or romaine there, to build and fortifie at the discretion of the sayde Sir Humfrey, and of his heires and assignee, the statutes or actes of Parliament made against Fugitives, or against such as shall depart, romaine or continue out of our Realme of England without licence, or any other acte, statute, lawe or matter whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And wee doe likewise by these presents, for US, our heires and successours, give full authoritie and power to the saide Sir Humfrey, his heires and assignee, and every of them, that tree and they, and every of any of them, shall and may at all and every time and times hereafter, have, take and lead in the same voyages, to travell thitherward, and to inhabits there with him, and every or any of them, such and so many of our subjects as shall willingly accompany him and them....

Wonderful. The downside it that I normally don't have 120 square inches of free space for wording. The other night, I wrote some awesome wording for {THAT PERSON THAT YOU LIKE}. 341 words for about 51 square inches of space. I had to gut about 100 words in order that everything fit in the space available. And, man, I hate doing that 'cause they were nice words. I know that it does take up extra time in {THAT EVENT THAT YOU LIKE}'s court but I feel that everyone who gets called up for an award, regardless of the award, should hear the herald read out some fancy-schamcy words describing that person and what they did to get the award. "Bla-bla has done great things in Our eyes and so do We, King and Queen, award him/her this award and a harty hand shake."

We are AEthelmearc: we can do better than that.

An Inkling of a Chance.

I was having dinner with friends, last night, and my good friend Govindi said something along the lines of "So and so doesn't have an inkling of a chance of doing something." I don't remember the details; only the phrase "inkling of a chance." Inkling? Inkling? I knew the phrase. I have even uttered it on occasion; but I had no clue what it meant. THL Govindi offered to summon the Googles for me (think of the Ricola ads). I declined and waited until I had a conference call at work, the following morning.

I was certain that the phrase was somehow related to printing. Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick wrote, "When I was late with a story at my first newspaper job I didn't have an inkling about deadlines, until my editor Roger Turner told me, 'Son, when it's ink, it's real.'" [1] However, they did say that it derived from the obscure Middle English word, nyngkiling or a whisper.

The earliest example of nyngkiling is from the 15th century Alliterative Romance of Alexander the Great. "[Alexander] Herd a nyngkiling of his name, & naytis him [exerted himself] to ryse."

The UK Phrase Finder web site gives the following:

So, if you heard an inkling your senses were alerted to listening for something that might interest you and it is that sensation that has led to our current usage of the word. To be more accurate, in the 13th century you would have had a ninkling rather than an inkling. Inkling is one of those nouns that were originally spelled with an 'n' at the start of the word but later lost it in everyday speech. In this case, sometime in the 16th century, 'a ninkling' became 'an inkling'. Other examples of this are 'a napron' and 'a nadder' [snake]. This reformation of words is called metanalysis and these 'n' examples of it are difficult to explain fully. There are examples of words going in the other direction, that is, adding an 'n'; for example, 'an ekename' is now 'a nickname' (eke means also) and 'an ewt' is now 'a newt'. Other examples, like 'nangry' where the originally spelled 'angry' gained an 'n' but then failed to become publicly accepted, show how precarious such changes are. Curiously, the most commonly heard example of an English word losing its initial 'n' happened in France rather than England. The French obtained 'orange' via a route through several languages, ultimately from the Sanskrit 'naranga', and 'une narange' became 'une arange'. By the time oranges appeared in England they were already oranges - there never was an English word noranges.

Walter Skeat, the quintessential source for this word, gives the following:

Inkling, a hint, intimation, (Scand, ?) M. E. Inkling, a whisper, murmur, low speaking. Alexander, when in disguise, feared he was discovered, because he 'herd a nyngkiling of his name,' Allit, romance of Alexander, 2968; where a nyngkiling stands for an yngkiling. "To incle the truth' = to hint at the truth, Alisaunder (in app. to Wm. of Palerne), 616. I suspect it to be corrupted from Dan. ymte, to murmur, mutter, an iterative verb from ymja, to mutter, hum (of imitative origin); so also Ucel. ymta, to mutter. [2]

So. An inkling of a chance would mean that there is the barest whisper that one will succeed. Or the inkling of the truth would be a quiet murmur, barely heard below the lies.


[1] Cousineau, Chadwick. p185

[2] Skeat (1), p219 or from other pages in the referenced Skeat sources.



Archipresbyter, Leo. The Wars of Alexander: an Alliterative romance. Kraus Reprint, 1973.

Cousineau, Phil; Chadwick, Gregg. The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins. Cleis Press, 2012.

Kuhn, Sherman M. Middle English Dictionary, Issue 2. University of Michigan Press, Feb 1, 1979.

Skeat, Walter William. A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Harper & brothers, 1882

Skeat, Walter W. The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. Wordsworth Editions, 1993 edition

Skeat, Walter W. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Courier Corporation, Feb 15, 2013

Skeat, Walter William. Twelve Facsimiles of Old English MSS., with Transcriptions and an Introd. Clarendon Press, 1892.

Skeat, Walter William. The Wars of Alexander: An Alliterative Romance Translated Chiefly from the Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis, Issue 47. Early English text society, 1886