diff --git a/hinter.js b/hinter.js
index a6c4bc0..0f6ad67 100644
--- a/hinter.js
+++ b/hinter.js
@@ -46,6 +46,9 @@
        If emptyText === false, the hint will be hidden instead of showing text.
      allowHTML
        If true, HTML code will be allowed in option names.
+     promptHTML
+       The HTML code to be displayed before the option list ("input prompt").
+       Empty by default.
      delay
        If this is set to a non-zero value, the autocompleter does no more than
        1 request in each delay milliseconds.
@@ -76,6 +79,7 @@ var SimpleAutocomplete = function(input, dataLoader, params)
     this.maxHeight = params.maxHeight;
     this.emptyText = params.emptyText;
     this.allowHTML = params.allowHTML;
+    this.promptHTML = params.promptHTML || '';
     this.delay = params.delay;
     this.moreMarker = params.moreMarker;
 
@@ -157,7 +161,7 @@ SimpleAutocomplete.prototype.init = function()
 // obj = [ [ name, value, disabled ], [ name, value ], ... ]
 SimpleAutocomplete.prototype.replaceItems = function(items, keepPosition)
 {
-    this.hintLayer.innerHTML = '';
+    this.hintLayer.innerHTML = this.promptHTML;
     if (!keepPosition)
     {
         this.hintLayer.scrollTop = 0;