HUNKER

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Dr. Goodword
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HUNKER

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:17 pm

• hunker •

Pronunciation: hêng-kêr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive

Meaning: 1. To squat, to sit on your haunches, to crouch. 2. To dig in your heels, to hold on stubbornly, usually with down, as to hunker down.

Notes: We all heard this word a lot during hurricane Ike's visit to Texas last week, as some people chose not to evacuate but to hunker down and stay. Of course, they probably didn't sit on their hunkers (haunches) but some of them were probably hunkerish, which is to say, conservative and old-fashioned.

In Play: Of course, we have different kinds of storms that require hunkering: "Voters need to hunker down and brace themselves against the storm of political ads preceding the November elections." Let's not forget the original meaning of this word, though, which is simply to sit back on our haunches: "Rose Gardner hunkered down and began pulling the weeds from her garden."

Word History: It seems to contain hunk, but how could that word be related? It doesn't seem to be. Rather, hunker appears to be a cousin of German hocken "crouch, squat", which would relate it to haunch. This word came from Old French hanche, which was borrowed from Frankish *hanka, the origin of Old High German einka "leg". Einka doesn't seem to be related to ankle despite the curious similarities. (Let's now thank Ron LeClair for suggesting we hunker down and explore this word heard so much during the reporting of Hurricane Ike. All of us here at alphaDictionary wish the best for all the victims of this massive storm.)
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scw1217
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Postby scw1217 » Sat Sep 20, 2008 4:40 pm

LOL, Good Dr., at "sitting on one's hunkers".
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