different between hunker vs junker

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

English

Etymology 1

From German, a contraction of jung herr (“young noble”); compare English young and herre; also younker.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?j??k?(r)/

Noun

junker (plural junkers)

1. A young German noble or squire, especially a member of the aristocratic party in Prussia, stereotyped with narrow-minded militaristic and authoritarian attitudes.
   • 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:

     Professors of philosophy and science carrying high the patriotic banner of Kultur and culture gloried in the system of compulsory, universal, military service, first made in Germany exulted in the degrading, vicious process of training by which the individual is hypnotized into submission to a brutal organization of military junkers, hallowed by the name of state and Fatherland, it was the darkest period in the history of mankind.

Alternative forms

• Junker

Derived terms

• junkerdom
• junkerish
• junkerism

References

• junker in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “junker”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000

Etymology 2

From junk +? -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d???k?(r)/
• Rhymes: -??k?(r)

Noun

junker (plural junkers)

1. (informal, US, Canada) A beat-up automobile.
2. A person with an interest in disused or discarded objects.
   • 1968, Ruth Stearns Egge, How to Make Something from Nothing

     An ardent junker herself, Mrs. Egge tells how to conduct a fascinating junk safari into the attic or antique and secondhand shops and what to do with the trophies you bring home.