scintilla

noun

1. a minute particle; spark; trace: not a scintilla of remorse.

noun

1. a minute amount; hint, trace, or particle

n.1690s, “spark, glimmer,” hence “least particle, trace,” from figurative use of Latin scintilla “particle of fire, spark, glittering speck, atom,” probably from PIE *ski-nto-, from root *skai- “to shine, to gleam” (cf. Gothic skeinan, Old English scinan “to shine;” see shine (v.)).