Dunkt

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic past form meaning that something was dipped or submerged briefly into a liquid
2. Describing an object that had been plunged or immersed into a liquid, as in older English usage
3. Past tense of an old verb meaning to dip or soak something quickly into a liquid

Etymology: In German and Dutch, "dunkt" is the third-person singular of a verb meaning "to seem," so "es dünkt mich" means "it seems to me." It is most familiar from the old phrase "mich dünkt," which survives in literary and formal German. The verb is a close relative of "denken" (to think), and the two were once a near-identical pair. Both come from a Germanic root, and over time their vowels separated: "denken" kept the sense of thinking, while "dünken" narrowed to meaning "to seem" or "to appear." Their shared ancestry is why the two verbs look so alike. English shows the same family resemblance in "methinks," which is Old English "me thyncð," literally "it seems to me." English "think" and this "seem" verb once overlapped in the same way, and the old phrase preserves the older sense.

Synonyms: dunked, dipped, immersed, soaked