Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders. · To raise (one's shoulders) (while lowering one's head or bending the top of one's body forward); to curve (one's body) forward (sometimes followed by up). · To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders. · To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
A hump; a protuberance. · A stooped or curled posture; a slouch. · A theory, idea, or guess; an intuitive impression that something will happen. · A hunk; a lump; a thick piece.
Assibilated variant of hunk, of uncertain origin. Alternatively, a derivative of hump, via an earlier Middle English *hunche, *humpchin, from *hump + -chin, -chen (diminutive suffix), equivalent to hump + -kin. In the sense of an intuitive impression, said to be from the old gambling superstition that it brings luck to touch the hump of a hunchback.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 3 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "suffix",
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "",
"3": "-chen",
"alt1": "*hump",
"alt2": "-chin, -chen",
"pos2": "diminutive suffix",
"nocat": "1"
},
"expansion": "*hump + -chin, -chen (diminutive suffix)"
},
{
"name": "af",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "hump",
"3": "-kin",
"nocat": "1"
},
"expansion": "hump + -kin"
}
],
"links": [
[
"hunk",
"hunk#English"
],
[
"hump",
"hump#English"
],
[
"*hunche",
"Reconstruction:Middle English/hunche"
],
[
"*humpchin",
"Reconstruction:Middle English/humpchin"
],
[
"-chin, -chen",
"-chen#Middle_English"
],
[
"hump",
"hump#English"
],
[
"-kin",
"-kin#English"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.",
"To raise (one's shoulders) (while lowering one's head or bending the top of one's body forward); to curve (one's body) forward (sometimes followed by up).",
"To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.",
"To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back."
],
"tags": [
"intransitive",
"transitive"
],
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},
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A hump; a protuberance.",
"A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.",
"A theory, idea, or guess; an intuitive impression that something will happen.",
"A hunk; a lump; a thick piece."
],
"tags": [],
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}