husk

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English huske,^[2][3][4] of uncertain origin.^[2][5][3] Most dictionaries take it as probably borrowed from Middle Dutch huuskijn (“little house, core of a fruit, case”),^{[6][7][8][9][10]} a diminutive of huus (“house”),^[6][9][10] akin to house.^[6][7] The Shorter Oxford and Hoad point rather to Low German hûske (“little house, core of fruit, sheath”).^[11][5] The OED allows a derivation from the word for house, comparing the formation of stalk and the East Frisian sense "core of an apple, case", and rejects a link with German Hülse and Dutch huls as historically and phonetically untenable.^[2] Barnhart notes that a connection with hull has also been proposed, without historical evidence,^[10] and Dictionary.com and Collins relate it to Old English hosu (“pod, husk”).^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dry outer covering of certain fruits and seeds: about 1400, in Mandeville's Travels.^[2][10] Barnhart finds huske earlier, in 1392, for the foreskin,^[10] and Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED calls it a common word since about 1400 with no earlier trace.^[2][3] It was used for the calyx of a flower (1530–1728), the wing case of an insect (1552) and the case of a chrysalis (1600),^[2] and figuratively, from 1567, for the outside of anything, especially a worthless exterior contrasted with what is inside;^[2] in the 17th century it could mean the human body.^[2] The Authorized Version's husks that the swine did eat (Luke 15:16) uses it for the pods of the carob.^[6] In North America it is the leafy covering of an ear of maize.^[11][2] The verb, to strip off the husks, is recorded from 1562, in Turner's Herbal.^[2][6][10] The adjective husky, full of husks, is from the 16th century, and its sense "dry in the throat" from the 18th.^[5][8] In Wiltshire dialect husks were the chaff of oats, and in West Yorkshire the word meant clothes;^[14] American slang used it for a well-built man (1915).^[15]

Timeline

• 1392 – huske, the foreskin.^[10]
• c. 1400 – the dry outer covering of fruits and seeds.^[2][10]
• 1530 – the calyx of a flower (obsolete by 1728).^[2]
• 1562 – verb, to remove the husk from.^[2][6][10]
• 1567 – figurative, an outer shell, a worthless exterior.^[2]
• 1600 – the case of a chrysalis.^[2]
• 1883 – husks collectively.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The dry outer covering of some seeds and fruits, such as grain or nuts; a hull or pod.^[13][6][7]
2. One of the leaves around an ear of maize.^[6][11]
3. An empty or worthless outer shell: the husk of an abandoned factory.^[13][2]

Verb

1. To remove the husk from: to husk rice.^[13][6]

Word family

• husker
• husklike
• unhusk
• cornhusk
• husk tomato

Related words

• house
• husky
• hull
• hoose

Usage notes

A separate husk, a disease of cattle and sheep marked by a dry cough (also called hoose), is recorded from the early 18th century and later meant huskiness;^[2][11][6] it is of uncertain origin, probably partly from an imitative verb husk, to cough.^[6][11]

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 o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com