Hinting
verbSuggesting something indirectly rather than stating it openly.
How to spell hinting
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce hinting
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does hinting mean?
- verbSuggesting something indirectly rather than stating it openly.
Hinting in a sentence
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She kept hinting that a promotion might be coming.
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By leaving the brochures on the table, he was clearly hinting at a holiday.
Where does hinting come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word hinting is the present participle of the verb hint, which surfaced in English around the early 1600s. Most scholars trace it back to the obsolete verb hent, from the Old English hentan, meaning 'to seize, grasp, or take hold of'. The journey from physically grasping something to mentally grasping it is a natural one: a hint was originally an occasion or opportunity one could 'catch' or 'take', and from there it narrowed to mean a slight clue or indirect suggestion that a listener was meant to pick up. Shakespeare used hint in this sense of an opening or opportunity, which shows the older meaning lingering. Because the modern word is so short and phonetically regular, the only real care needed when adding the suffix is simply doubling nothing and keeping the single t before -ing.
How the word is built
- hint (root: a slight or indirect suggestion)
- -ing (present participle / verbal noun suffix)
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