A hint is an inconspicuous sign or signal that might help to solve a philosophical problem. The German verb winken, from which the noun “hint” (Wink) is derived, literally means “to wave” or “to beckon.” Heidegger employs the noun “hint” in the metaphorical sense of a gesture that leads into the right direction. However, the bodily connotation of the word is not important in his usage. Wink can be translated adequately as “sign” or “hint”; winken as “to hint,” “to give a sign,” or “to beckon.”

Heidegger does not use the word “hint” in the early lecture courses or in Being and Time. Nevertheless, he refers in Being and Time to two issues that are related to the later concept of the hint, (i) Heidegger distinguishes signs from other things that appear available (zuhanden). A sign is not only related to a context, but when we identify a sign “the surrounding world becomes expressly accessible for circumspection” (SZ 82). (2) Heidegger distinguishes between the full phenomenological experience of a matter and the possibility to merely describe it preliminarily. The latter is what he calls “formal indication” (formale Anzeige, SZ 114). As a sign in general, a hint opens a new perspective on the world. Yet, it only leads the way to understanding a phenomenon, it does not provide the full phenomenological experience. In this regard, a hint has a function similar to formal indication. But unlike formal indication, it is not a methodological step but something that has to be received by the philosopher from outside in order to inspire his work. (CHL)

Um Wink é um sinal dado com a mão ou com um objeto, não apenas com a pálpebra de alguém. Esta palavra vem de winken, originalmente “balançar, acenar etc.”, e agora “assinalar com a mão etc.”. Hölderlin escreveu: “(…) Desde tempos antigos, os sinais (Winke) têm sido a língua dos deuses” (“Rousseau”, IL.39s). O poeta recebe estes sinais e os transmite por meio de suas próprias palavras, que dão sinais para o seu povo. Heidegger encontra um paralelo em Heráclito: “O autor, cujo oráculo fica em Delfos, não diz nem subtrai nada, assinala (semainei) o retraimento” (GA39, 127). Um Wink difere de um Zeichen. Assinalar difere de apontar para algo, chamar atenção para algo. Der Winkende, “alguém que acena”, não apenas chama atenção para si mesmo, dando-nos a saber onde está. “Acenar (Winken) adeus é tentar manter a proximidade à medida que a distância aumenta, enquanto que acenar na chegada é revelar distância ainda dominante na alegria da proximidade. Os deuses simplesmente dão sinais, pois eles são” (GA39, 32). (DH)