different between cower vs hunker

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ka??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ka??/
• Rhymes: -a?.?(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English cowre, couren, curen, from Middle Low German kûren (“to lie in wait; linger”) or from North Germanic (Icelandic kúra (“to doze”)). Cognate with German kauern (“to squat”), Dutch koeren (“to keep watch (in a cowered position)”), Serbo-Croatian kutriti (“to lie in a bent position”). Unrelated to coward, which is of Latin origin.

Verb

cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)

1. (intransitive) To crouch or cringe, or to avoid or shy away from something, in fear.

   He'd be useless in war. He'd just cower in his bunker until the enemy came in and shot him, or until the war was over.

   • 1700, John Dryden, "The Cock and the Fox", in Fables, Ancient and Modern, published March 1700:

     Our dame sits cowering o'er a kitchen fire.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To crouch in general.
   • 1764, Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller:

     Some sterner virtues o’er the mountain’s breast
     May sit, like falcons, cowering on the nest

   • 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:

     The mother bird had mov’d not,
     But cowering o’er her nestlings,
     Sate confident and fearless,
     And watch’d the wonted guest.

3. (transitive) To cause to cower; to frighten into submission.

Translations

See also

• coward
• cowardice

Etymology 2

Verb

cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To cherish with care.

Anagrams

• Crowe

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h??k?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?h??k?/
• Rhymes: -??k?(?)

Etymology 1

Originally Scottish. Origin uncertain, but probably of Germanic origin, perhaps *hunk- a nasalised variant of *huk- (compare Scots hoonk, hounk, variants of huk, hok (“to squat, crouch”); Scots hocker (“to crouch down, hunker”)), all of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse huka (“to crouch”), from Proto-Germanic *h?kan- (“to squat”), from *h?kkan-, back-formed from the iterative *huk(k)?n-, from Proto-Indo-European *kuk-néh?, from *kewk- (“to curve, bend”) (also the source of high).

Probable cognates include Old Norse húka, Dutch huiken, and German hocken.

Verb

hunker (third-person singular simple present hunkers, present participle hunkering, simple past and past participle hunkered)

1. (intransitive) To crouch or squat close to the ground or lie down
2. (intransitive) To apply oneself to a task

Synonyms

• (crouch, squat or lie): crouch, squat, lie

Derived terms

• hunkers
• hunker down

Translations

Etymology 2

Unknown

Noun

hunker (plural hunkers)

1. (dated) A political conservative.

See also

• hunkers

References

Anagrams

• Ruhnke

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??k?r

Verb

hunker

1. first-person singular present indicative of hunkeren
2. imperative of hunkeren

Anagrams

• hurken