"I got a hankerin' to mosey on down t' the Agora for a spell and learn me sumpthin'."
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
hanker
SYLLABICATION: han·ker
PRONUNCIATION: hăn'gkr
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: han·kered, han·ker·ing, han·kers
To have a strong, often restless desire.
ETYMOLOGY: Perhaps from Dutch dialectal hankeren. See konk- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: hank'er·er —NOUN
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
The Online Etymology Dictionary gives us:
hanker
1601, probably from Flem. hankeren, related to Du. hunkeren "to hanker," perhaps intens. of M.Du. hangen "to hang." The notion is of "lingering about" with longing or craving.
