A fully-formed question for a half-formed thought

March 21, 2017 4:07 AM

Is there a specific word for a "half-formed thought"? I have been puzzling over it and Google has been no help. I vaguely recall reading something about such a word, but memory is a fickle friend. Does this word exist? If not, are there any close approximations? Thanks all.
posted by awkwardpanda to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

inkling
posted by Hugobaron at 4:17 AM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Notion. Mathematicians use the word notion to mean an idea that has not yet been defined in a rigorous way.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:41 AM on March 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Found the answer after going through a notebook from 2 years ago(!), when I first came across it: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/henid
posted by awkwardpanda at 5:20 AM on March 21, 2017 [5 favorites]

rudiment also works. inchoate (as adjective) is my favorite.
posted by mr. remy at 10:42 AM on March 21, 2017

inkling, seconded, although I, too, am a fan of the adjective inchoate (which isn't at all limited to thoughts--I received some pretty inchoate paper drafts this week from my students haha. ONE OF WHOM GOES TO CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL see what I did thurrr).
posted by Joseph Gurl at 2:08 AM on March 22, 2017 [2 favorites]