hunker

Meaning

Verb

1. To crouch or squat close to the ground or lie down
2. To apply oneself to a task

Noun

A political conservative.

Synonyms

crouch

scrunch

squat

scrunch up

hunker down

retrograde person

bow

🙇

reactionary

bend

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈhʌŋkə/

Etymology

Cognate with Scots: hoonk

Cognate with Scots: hocker

In summary

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.