Hanker
Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:00 pm
Another Old-West-sounding word:
"I got a hankerin' to mosey on down t' the Agora for a spell and learn me sumpthin'."
"I got a hankerin' to mosey on down t' the Agora for a spell and learn me sumpthin'."
The Online Etymology Dictionary gives us: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.
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.