hunk

Etymology

It is of uncertain origin.^[2][3] It is perhaps borrowed from West Flemish hunke (“a hunk of bread or meat”),^{[3][4][5][6][7]} which the OED finds identical in form and sense in De Bo's West Flemish dictionary of 1892;^[2] Hoad knows no obvious cognates of it.^[8] Barnhart, Klein and Merriam-Webster think the Flemish word perhaps related to Dutch homp (“lump, chunk”), and so to hump.^[4][9][6] Dictionary.com calls the source Dutch dialect,^[10] and the Oxford Dictionary of English gives it as probably Dutch or Low German.^[11] The Shorter Oxford, Weekley and Wright compare hunch.^[7][12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large piece cut off, as from a loaf or a cheese; a thick or clumsy lump: 1809, in Alexander Wilson's Foresters.^[2][14] Etymonline dates the word to 1732,^[3] Merriam-Webster to about 1813,^[6] and Barnhart to before 1813.^[4] The OED notes that it is not frequent in literature before 1850.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline dates a use of the word for a stupid person to the 1630s, and the sense "peasant, rube" to 1910.^[3] Green's dictionary records a US sense of a country bumpkin or farmer from 1910.^[15] In the 19th century hunk was also used for a hunks, a surly or miserly person (1872),^[2][14] and in Scots for a sluttish, lazy woman.^[2][13] In dialect across Scotland, England and America it meant a misshapen lump or a large, thick piece of food.^[13] A large man or woman was a hunk from 1941, in Baker's dictionary of Australian slang.^[2][14] Etymonline finds the sense of an attractive woman by 1946, and that of a sexually attractive man in 1942, of the actor Victor Mature; it thinks these grew from hunk as a "specimen", perhaps with the influence of the older senses.^[3] The Oxford Dictionary of New Words explains the modern sense as judging a man only by his physique, as if he were a piece of meat, and says it was first used by jazz musicians in the 1940s, was popular with American college students in the late 1960s, spread to Britain, Australia and South Africa by the late 1970s and was a favourite of tabloid journalists in the 1980s.^[16]

Timeline

• 1809 – a large piece cut off; a lump.^[2][14] Etymonline dates the word to 1732.^[3]
• 1910 – a country bumpkin or peasant.^[15][3]
• 1941 – a large, solidly built man or woman.^[2][14]
• 1942 – a sexually attractive, well-built man, first of Victor Mature.^[3] The OED's first quotation for this sense is from 1966.^[2][14]
• 1946 – an attractive woman.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large piece or lump of something: She cut a hunk of cheese for the journey.^[17][6][2]
2. (informal) A strong, well-built man, especially one thought sexually attractive.^{[17][6][2][16]}
3. A large or solidly built person.^[7][2][10]

Word family

• hunky

Related words

• hump
• hunch
• hunks

Usage notes

A separate, disparaging US slang word hunk, probably a shortening of Hungarian, has been used since 1896 for immigrants from east-central Europe.^[2][3][7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c 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)
14. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b Knowles, Elizabeth; Elliott, Julia, eds. (1997), The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins