By Betty Kirkpatrick
It is a sure sign of getting old when your joints begin to play up. They start to creak, stiffen up and cause sudden stabs of pain, making actions like hunkering very difficult. Even trickier is the process of getting up after hunkering.
The verb to hunker, more commonly to hunker doon, is a Scots term meaning to crouch down, sitting on your haunches. The English equivalent is squat, which is rather an ugly word and is not infrequently associated with excretion.
The verb hunker, thought to be derived from a Germanic word which is also likely to be the source of Old Norse huka and German hocken, to crouch or to squat, can also mean to huddle, as in hunkering round a small fire in an attempt to get warm.
Figuratively, it is used to mean to submit to someone or something, as in having to hunker doon to the demands of a tyrant. You can also be obliged to hunker doon to circumstances, meaning that you resign yourself to the difficulties of whatever situation you find yourself in. You have no choice.
Hunker is one of these expressions which was exported from Scotland to America, without stopping off in England. There it began to be followed by down rather than doon. While in America, hunker down spread its wings and developed other meanings. When you are sitting on your haunches you are less visible than you are when you are standing up, at least from some angles. So it is quite logical that hunker down came to mean to hide or hide out, whatever physical position you adopted in the process.
This was just a step away from its meaning of to settle in a relatively comfortable or safe place for an extended period of time while things improve. This sense can be used literally or figuratively, as in to hunker down in the cabin over the long winter, or to hunker down and spend as little money as possible during a recession.
Other meanings developed. Hunker down came to mean to refuse absolutely to change your opinion, attitude, way of behaving etc, to stick your principles, so to speak. Next came to make preparations for the undertaking of a difficult task, to buckle down to something. If students find exams looming they would do well to hunker down and get some studying done.
What happened to hunker down next? The American meanings were exported to the UK, this time to English. Hunker doon had become a transatlantic success story.
Hunker as a noun, although usually in the plural form hunkers, is also commonly found in Scots. The hunkers are the haunches or the backs of the thighs, the part of the body that you balance yourself on when you hunker doon.
Sitting on your hunkers is by no means a comfortable position. If you are on your hunkers figuratively you are in trouble, often serious trouble and often trouble of a financial nature. It is like being on your last legs or your beam ends. In these lean times many people will find themselves on their hunkers. Some will find it impossible to get back on their feet.
Betty Kirkpatrick is the former editor of several classic reference books, including Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus. She is also the author of several smaller language reference books, including The Usual Suspects and Other Clichés published by Bloomsbury, and a series of Scots titles, including Scottish Words and Phrases, Scottish Quotations, and Great Scots, published by Crombie Jardine.
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