haunch

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English haunche, also hanche,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French hanche (“hip, thigh; haunch”),^{[5][6][7][3][8]} with a northern form hanke,^[5][9] and in part borrowed from Medieval Latin hancha, which the OED records from 1275.^[2][5] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1155.^[10] It is the same word as Spanish anca, Italian anca and Portuguese anca, hip, the croup of a horse.^[5][11][12] The French word is from Frankish *hanka,^[6][3][9] or of a similar Germanic source;^[7][5][8] Wiktionary reconstructs the Frankish form as *ankijā, from Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“joint; ankle”).^[1] Cognates are Middle Dutch hanke (“hip, haunch”),^[3][8][4] Middle High German hanke (“hip, shank”) and Old High German hinkan (“to limp”),^[3][7] and Low German hanke (“hind leg of a horse”).^[13][11] The OED compares Old High German ancha (“leg, literally joint”),^[5][7] but Weekley objects that it does not explain the initial h-.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The part of the body between the lowest ribs and the thigh, the hip, in people and in four-footed animals: about 1225, in the OED's first quotation.^[5][2] Barnhart dates the spelling haunche before 1250 and the earlier hanche probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Middle English used the word for the hip and the hip joint, and in compounds such as haunche bon, the hipbone, and haunche turn, a wrestling trick of throwing an opponent over one's hip.^[2] From 1481 it was the leg and loin of a deer or sheep served at table.^[5][15] Shakespeare used it figuratively in Henry IV, Part 2 (1600) for the hinder part or latter end of something.^[5] Technical senses followed: the side of an arch between the crown and the piers (1793),^[5][8] a part of a ship (1823) and the basal joint of an insect's or spider's leg (1828).^[5][15] The spelling haunch displaced hanch only in the 18th century.^[5][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the thigh; the hind hip", quoting Spenser.^[16] The verbs formed from the noun include an obsolete hunting verb, to bring a deer down on its haunches (1605), and a Scots verb, to throw underhand with the arm jerked against the haunch (1788).^[5] In Lancashire and Warwickshire dialect haunch was a verb meaning to lounge about or to walk with a lurching, insolent gait.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – the hip, in people and animals.^[5]
• 1481 – the leg and loin of an animal as food.^[5]
• 1600 – figurative, the hinder part.^[5]
• 1605 – verb, to bring a deer down on its haunches (obsolete).^[5]
• 1793 – in architecture, the side of an arch.^[5]
• 1828 – the basal joint of an insect's leg.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The hip, or the fleshy part of the body around the hip and thigh, in people and animals: The dog sat back on its haunches.^[12][8][5]
2. The hindquarters of an animal; usually plural.^[8][12]
3. The leg and loin of an animal, such as a deer or sheep, as meat: a roast haunch of mutton.^[12][5]
4. (architecture) Either side of an arch between the springing and the crown.^[12][8][5]

Word family

• haunched
• haunchless
• haunch bone

Related words

• hunch

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)