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I came across this phrase in the sentence:

> 勘【かん】というものは、しょちゅう経験【けいけん】していながら、 **どことなくつかみどころがなく**
> 、いまの科学【かがく】ではまだその正体【しょうたい】が、明らか【あきらか】にされていない。(Soumatome N1 dokkai, p45)

My best effort to translate it naturally would be:

"Although we all often experience intuition, it is an intangible phenomenon
that modern science has yet to explain. "

But this is a guess with some added words. The expression can be googled as
'it is slippery in some way'.

Does anybody know this expression (or can suggest a good reference for such
expressions)?
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word-choice words translation
what does どことなくつかみどころがなくmean?
I think part of the problem comes from trying to understand the phrase as a
whole. If you take it piece by piece, it can become clear.

Instead of looking at つかみどころがなく, try just つかみどころ first. So a rough translation
might be "to have a hold or grip on something". You also could go the "kanji
way" and look at 掴み所 which can shed light on the meaning.

So, I would probably translate どことなくつかみどころがなく as:

> "For some reason, we cannot seem to grasp this concept."

You could also probably say:

> "For some reason, this (idea,concept) is elusive".

but that seems not as clear.

You can see part of the expression on [Space
ALC](http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8B%E3%81%BF%E3%81%A9%E3%81%93%E3%82%8D).
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The way I interpret it is that
[`つかみどころがない`](http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8B%E3%81%BF%E3%81%A9%E3%81%93%E3%82%8D)
literally means something like "no places (you) can grab onto", and that it
can mean "eludes grasp", "elusive", "slippery", "vague", "unclear" and
similar, and that
[`どことなく`](http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E3%81%A9%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8F)
means "somehow":

> 勘というものは、しょっちゅう経験していながら、どことなくつかみどころがなく、いまの科学ではまだその正体が、明らかにされていない。
>
> While being experienced quite often, the sixth sense somehow eludes our
> grasp. The way it physically manifests remains unclear to modern science.
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Breaking it down into the constituent parts:

  * どことなく : not anywhere in particular (adds vagueness to the word); somewhere (but I cannot tell where)

> From [goo辞書](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/158557/m0u/):
>
>     * どことはっきり言えないが、なんとなく。 - "Unable to clearly say where; somehow or other"

  * つかみどころ (掴み所) : gripping point

> From
> [goo辞書](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/146635/m0u/%E6%8E%B4%E3%81%BF%E6%89%80/):
>
>     * つかむ部分。また、そのものの本質や真意を押さえる手がかりとなる点。とらえどころ。 - "The point that pins down
> the essence and/or intention (of the thing in question) that is key (to
> understanding); clue; vital point."

  * ～がなく : not having ～

It comes together to form "not having a gripping point somewhere (but I do not
know where in particular)".

The "gripping point" represents a step towards understanding for which if you
manage to "grab" it, you can start to understand more of the intangible
phenomenon of intuition.

Opinion: Think of it as rock-climbing, and every hand-grip (clue to
understanding) you manage to grab, hold on and pull yourself up brings you
closer to the top (complete understanding)

To continue the metaphor, imagine rock climbing while being blindfolded. You
recognize that there are hand-grip points around you, but you reach out and
cannot find any, so you do not have a gripping point. But you know it is
somewhere, just not exactly where. It is also possible that there are no hand-
grip points around you, because you were blindfolded from the start and led to
the wall, you might not even know that it could be an unclimbable smooth wall!

Bringing it back to trying to understand the phenomenon of intuition
scientifically, the "blindfold" symbolises scientists trying to look into an
unknown field. But scientists assert that there must be some systematic way of
understanding it so they look for the "hand-grip points" in an attempt to
understand and "ascend the wall". However because little is known about the
nature of the wall, it could in fact be a flat smooth wall with no way to
climb over.
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