I have a ninkling

What exactly is an inkling anyway?  A baby squid? I'd need an aquarium if I had one of those . . . eventually, a pretty big one.

But an inkling is not a baby squid . . . so what is it?

A very small pen?  Uhm . . . no.

In its current usage, an inkling is a vague feeling or idea about something . . . that much is generally known . . . .  but the origins of the word is something else altogether.

In days of yore . . . in a long long yore ago during the times of the Crusades and the Mongol hordes . . . you didn't have an inkling you had a ninkling.  

Much like a tinkle is a tiny bell like sound, a ninkling was not something you had but something your heard.  A ninkle was like if you overheard a bit of a conversation and thought you heard your name mentioned.  This ninkling would pique your curiosity and might want to learn more about what was being said . . . about you.

A few hundred years later the 'n' was dropped from the word and at that point you would have an inkling instead of a ninkling.  And then at some point further on in time an inkling became something you had . . . like a baby squid or a tiny pen . . . instead of something you heard.  And you wouldn't have heard it in the first place if you hadn't been eaves dropping . . . which is quite rude, by the way.  Just sayin'.

So, there it is.