Etymologically
Log in

hock

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word hock

English has three main words spelled hock: the joint in an animal's leg, the German wine and the pawn or debt of in hock.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

hock1 joint in the hind leg

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Old English, as hōh and the compound hōhsinu
Inherited from
Old English hoh via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *kenk-

Etymology

The word for the joint is inherited from Middle English hokke,[2] a southern by-form of Middle English hough,[5][6][7] inherited from Old English hōh (“heel”).[6][8][3] The way the short vowel arose is debated.[5][2] Ayto, Hoad and Collins take hock as a shortening of late Middle English hokschyne, from hōhsinu (“heel sinew, hamstring”),[1][9][10][3] formed from that noun and the ancestor of sinew.[11][12] Barnhart thinks that compound was altered under the influence of shin.[2] The OED explains the vowel by the shortening of the compound, which then reacted on the simple word to give a Scots form with a short vowel, and it takes the spelling hock from the anglicized pronunciation of that form.[5] The noun for the heel comes from Proto-Germanic *hanhaz,[3][13] also the source of German Hachse (“hock”) and of hæla (“heel”),[3] from Proto-Indo-European *kenk- (“heel, bend of the knee”).[3][2] The compound has cognates in Old Frisian hōsene (“hamstring, Achilles' tendon”), Old Norse hásin and Old High German hahsa (“hock”),[2] and Barnhart compares Lithuanian kenklē (“bend of the knee”).[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English hōh is noted only for the human heel, but the compound hōhsinu was used of horses, which implies that the simple word also named the horse's joint.[5] A leechbook speaks of a broken hóhsino, and the Old English Joshua 11:6 has Heora horsa hóhsina ðú ofcirfst, rendering Latin equos eorum subnervabis.[12] The spelling with -ck dates from about 1410 in Barnhart,[2] and its first quotation in the OED is from 1540, in the accounts of St John's Hospital, Canterbury.[5][8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English hough was still used of people, for the heel and for the hollow of the knee.[14] The OED suggests that the human sense was transferred from the horse's joint after "heel" had been forgotten, since that joint sits where a person's knee does and was popularly called the hind knee.[5] The form hock has largely replaced hough,[5] which is now chiefly Scottish,[8] and Ayto notes that for the cut of bacon only hock is used.[1] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as the joint between the knee and the fetlock, and the verb as to disable in the hock.[15] The verb is formed from the noun.[5][7] In the dialects of Ireland and England the word could mean the thigh, hip, ham or leg;[16] from 1785 hocks was slang for the feet.[17]

Timeline

  • Old English – hōh, heel, and hōhsinu, heel sinew.[12][5]
  • c. 1300 – Middle English ho, the human heel.[14][2]
  • c. 1350 – howghe, the hollow of the knee.[14][2]
  • c. 1395 – the compound hokschyne, ankle or back of the knee.[2] Etymonline dates hockshin to the late 14th century.[3]
  • c. 1400 – hough, the joint in a quadruped's hind leg.[5]
  • c. 1410 – the form hokke.[2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.[3]
  • 1540 – hock, the joint in a quadruped's hind leg.[5][8]
  • 1570 – verb, to disable by cutting the tendons of the hock.[5]
  • 1706 – the knuckle end of a gammon of bacon.[5][7][1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The joint in the hind leg of a horse or similar quadruped, between the knee and the fetlock, pointing backwards and corresponding to the human ankle.[10][6][5]
  2. The similar joint in the leg of a fowl.[10][6][8]
  3. A knuckle of meat, especially of pork or ham: smoked pork hock with lentils.[18][19][6]

Verb

  1. To disable an animal or person by cutting the tendons of the hock; to hamstring.[5][8][10]

hock2 Rhine wine

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing, Clipping
First attested
c. 1625
Borrowed from
German Hochheimer
Ultimate origin
German Hochheimer

Etymology

The word for the wine is short for obsolete hockamore,[5][2][3][6][9] itself borrowed from German Hochheimer (“(wine) of Hochheim”) in an altered form,[5][2][6][18][8] named after Hochheim on the Main, a town of wine production.[3][1][5] Etymonline glosses the town's name as "high home".[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The white wine of Hochheim: Barnhart dates the word to before 1625,[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to about 1625,[8] and Etymonline to the 1620s.[3] The OED's first quotation is much later, from 1671, in John Crowne's Juliana,[5] and its first record of the longer form hockamore is from 1673, in Shadwell's Epsom-Wells.[5]

Semantic evolution

From the wine of one place the name spread commercially to German white wines in general,[5][3] and it is now chiefly British.[8] Collins and the Shorter Oxford also record a loose use for any dry white wine.[10][7] Johnson (1755) entered hockamore as "old strong Rhenish", with a quotation from Hudibras.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1625 – hock, the white wine of Hochheim.[8][2]
  • 1673 – the fuller form hockamore (recorded to 1747).[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A white wine from the German Rhine region.[10][8][19]
  2. Loosely, any dry white wine.[10][7]

hock3 pawn, debt

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1859 Matsell, Vocabulum
Borrowed from
Dutch hok
Ultimate origin
Dutch hok

Etymology

The word for pawn or debt is borrowed from Dutch hok (“pen, hovel, prison; in slang, credit, debt”),[5][3][6][8][7] though Barnhart calls this only possible.[2] Ayto says Dutch immigrants brought it to the United States.[1] The American Heritage Dictionary relates the Dutch noun to West Frisian hok (“narrow space”) and thinks it is probably of pre-Germanic substrate origin.[6] Green's Dictionary of Slang also notes Asbury's account, in which a faro player who had bet on the last card in the box was caught “in hock”.[17] The verb is formed from the noun.[5][3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the phrase “in hock”, with the senses "caught out by a sharper in gambling" and "in prison": 1859, in Matsell's Vocabulum: "When one gambler is caught by another, smarter than himself, and is beat, then he is in hock", and "Among thieves a man is in hock when he is in prison".[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word began in American slang, in gambling and among thieves.[3][2] The verb "to pawn" is recorded in 1878,[5][17] before Merriam-Webster Unabridged's first date for goods held as a pledge, 1883.[8] From these uses the phrase settled on pawned goods and on being in debt;[5][7] in 1938 Asbury thought the pawnshop meaning a recent one.[17]

Timeline

  • 1859 – in hock, caught out in gambling; in prison.[5][3]
  • 1878 – verb, to pawn.[5][17][3]
  • 1883 – goods held as a pledge for a loan.[8]
  • 1904 – in slang, a pawnbroker's office.[17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The state of being pawned, usually in the phrase in hock: Her guitar has been in hock since March.[8][10][7]
  2. in hock: in debt: The firm is in hock to three banks.[8][5][7]
  3. (slang) prison, especially in the phrase in hock.[8][5][7]
  4. In Africa, through the Afrikaans word, a small or temporary building or enclosure: a hock for the hens.[8]

Verb

  1. To leave something with a pawnbroker as security for a loan; to pawn: He hocked his watch to pay the rent.[8][18][10]

Word family

  • hocker
  • hockshop

Usage notes

Several rarer words have the same spelling.[5][8] An obsolete name for mallows, Old English hoc, of unknown origin, survives only in hollyhock.[5][8][1] Hock, to observe Hocktide, is formed from the first part of Hock-day.[5][8] Hock, a rod or chain with a hook at the end, is perhaps a shortening of hook.[5][8] Hock, the last card in the box at faro, is of uncertain origin; it has been taken as a shortening of hockelty.[8][7][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  13. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  14. ^ a b c 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)
  15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ 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)
  17. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  18. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  19. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Hock.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/hock. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·