Hanker

[Stargzer]

Another Old-West-sounding word:

"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.

[tcward]

The term "hankerin'" always reminds me of that old commercial (it was a cartoon) for cheese... At least I seem to remember it as a cheese commercial.

Anyone else remember that one?

-Tim