hunker
nounEtymology Unknown
1
Dated A political conservative.
- Related terms
- hunkers
hunker
verbUK /ˈhʌŋkə/ · US /ˈhʌŋkɚ/
Etymology Originally Scottish. Origin uncertain, but probably of Germanic origin, perhaps *hunk- a nasalised variant of *huk- (compare Scots hoonk, hounk, variants of huk, hok (“to squat, crouch”); Scots hocker (“to crouch down, hunker”)), all of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse huka (“to crouch”), from Proto-Germanic *hūkan- (“to squat”), from *hūkkan-, back-formed from the iterative *huk(k)ōn-, from Proto-Indo-European *kuk-néh₂, from *kewk- (“to curve, bend”) (also the source of high). Probable cognates include Old Norse húka, Dutch huiken, and German hocken.
1
To crouch or squat close to the ground or lie down.
- Get out of the mobile home and hunker in a ditch2020 March 3, “Tornado Safety”, in WHAS-TV, archived from the original on 03 Apr 2023:
2
To apply oneself to a task.
- Derived terms
- hunker down, hunkerer, hunkers