*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of thunk

By analogy with past participles ending in "-unk", such as drunk and sunk.

3 source sectionsExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗
In this entry · 3 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Source etymology 1

Original entry ↗
verb

past participle of think

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

By analogy with past participles ending in "-unk", such as drunk and sunk.

Inspect preserved source fields

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Source etymology 2

Original entry ↗
verb

To strike against something, without breakage, making a "thunk" sound.

intj

Representing the dull sound of the impact of a heavy object striking another and coming to an immediate standstill, with neither object being broken by the impact.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Onomatopoeic.

Inspect preserved source fields

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Source etymology 3

Original entry ↗
noun

A delayed computation. · In the Scheme programming language, a function or procedure taking no arguments. · A specialized subroutine that one software module uses to execute code in another module.

verb

To delay (a computation). · To execute (code) by means of a thunk.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Said by the inventors to be from the irregular jocular past tense of think (see Etymology 1), being coined when they realised that the type of an argument in ALGOL 60 could be predetermined at compile time (with a little compile-time “thought”).

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Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for thunk →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-dGh1bms