different between strongman vs hulk

English

Etymology

strong +? -man

Noun

strongman (plural strongmen)

1. Someone who performs feats of strength, sometimes in competitions or in a circus.
2. A forceful or brutal person, usually a ruler or tyrant.

Translations

See also

• strongwoman

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Middle English hulk (“hut; shed for hogs; type of ship; husk, pod, shell; large, clumsy person; a giant”) [and other forms] (probably reinforced byMiddle Dutch hulk [and other forms] and Middle Low German hulk [and other forms]), from Old English hulc (“light ship; heavy, clumsy ship; cabin, hovel, hut”); further etymology uncertain, but probably related to Ancient Greek ????? (holkás, “ship being towed; cargo ship; ship used for trading”) (compareAncient Greek ???? (hélk?, “to drag”), of Mediterranean origin, or from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to draw, pull”)).

The verb is derived from the noun.

Noun

hulk (plural hulks)

1. (nautical)
   1. (archaic) A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre.
   2. (by extension) A non-functional but floating ship, usually stripped of equipment and rigging, and often put to other uses such as accommodation or storage.
2. (figuratively) A large structure with a dominating presence.
3. (figuratively) A big (and possibly clumsy) person.
   1. (bodybuilding) An excessively muscled person.

Alternative forms

• hulke (obsolete)

Derived terms

• hulkish
• hulky
• sheer hulk

Translations

Verb

hulk (third-person singular simple present hulks, present participle hulking, simple past and past participle hulked)

1. (transitive, nautical)
   1. To reduce (a ship) to a non-functional hulk.
      • 2003, Gordon de L. Marshall, Ships' Figure Heads in Australia, Tangee Publishing (?ISBN), page 52:

        In Fremantle very few vessels appear to have been reduced to hulks, and only one figure head Samuel Plimsoll, [Fig. 62] survives from a sailing ship hulked in 1904. [...] The Sarah Burnyeat was hulked in Albany in 1886, [...]

      • 2017, Rif Winfield, Stephen S Roberts, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786, Seaforth Publsihing (?ISBN), page 203:

        No further additions were made to this group, and by 1729 the Rank was extinct (the last to be struck was the Ludlow, which had been hulked in 1719).

   2. To temporarily house (goods, people, etc.) in such a hulk.
2. (transitive) To move (a large, hulking body).
   • 1968, Francis Russell, The Shadow of Blooming Grove - Warren G. Harding in His Times (?ISBN):

     This hearty, willing man had hulked his 354 pounds about the world, faithfully and deftly running presidential errands in Cuba, Panama, the Philippines, Rome, Russia, and Japan and China.

   • 1994, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Science and Other Poems, LSU Press (?ISBN), page 16:

     A man with four children crowding like saplings around him whistles to wake up the elephant seal who has hulked his impossible body onto the beach.

   • 2017, N.D.Rabin, Hidden Magic: Fear of the Smallest Wizard, AuthorHouse (?ISBN)

     Hadrian hulked his mass over the spot where the children had disappeared. 'You are still here, aren't you? I can feel your presence.' He walked forwards and his giant strides came down on the children. They scrambled out the way, [...]

3. (intransitive) To be a hulk, that is, a large, hulking, and often imposing presence.
   • 1992, Richard Condon, The Venerable Bead, Macmillan (?ISBN), page 163:

     After one trip with them, he decided he couldn't stand to have bodyguards hulking around him wherever he went. He felt like an idiot walking along the aisles of the supermarket with eight lumpy men standing around [...]

   • 2006, Angus Dunn, Writing in the Sand, Luath Press Ltd (?ISBN):

     As the occupants stepped out, he hulked at them menacingly and asked them the traditional question. 'Can Ah help youse?'

   • 2007, Cheryl Strayed, Torch, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (?ISBN), page 156:

     An oven hulked in the middle of the room, detached from everything, and a gathering of objects sat in the corner: a rolled rug with gnarled tassels, a chair from the bar downstairs that was missing a leg, a box [...]

   • 2008, J. D. Robb, Three in Death, Penguin (?ISBN):

     The remains of an old bar hulked in the center of the room. As it was draped with more dusty protective cloth, she assumed Hopkins had intended to restore it to whatever its former glory might have been.

   • 2012, Paul Melko, The Broken Universe, Tor Books (?ISBN), page 314:

     The whoosh pushed John down, and as he fell, he turned to see the machine hulking over him, just meters away. “Shit!” he cried [...]

4. (intransitive) Of a (large) person: to act or move slowly and clumsily.
   • 1934, Gösta Larsson, Our Daily Bread: A Novel:

     After a while he hulked up to where Erland sat, putting his hairy fist on the table and watching the boy work.

   • 2008, Craig Conte, Millennial Reign, iUniverse (?ISBN), page 301:

     Instead he hulked his way towards Kruger again as the crowd ooohd and aaahd at the prowess. The two men were about equal in height, but Matusak outweighed Kruger by about fifty pounds.

Derived terms

• hulking (adjective, noun)
• hulkingly
• hulk out

Translations

Etymology 2

A variant of holk (“to dig out, hollow out, make hollow; to dig up, excavate; to dig into, investigate”), from Middle English holken (“to dig out, hollow out; to dig up, excavate”) (compare holk (“a hollow; body cavity”)), from Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”, adjective); further etymology uncertain, perhaps either from Proto-Indo-European *?el- (“to cover”), or *?ewh?- (“to swell; to be strong”).

Verb

hulk (third-person singular simple present hulks, present participle hulking, simple past and past participle hulked)

1. (transitive, obsolete except Britain, dialectal) To remove the entrails of; to disembowel.

References

Further reading

• hulk (medieval ship type) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• hulk (ship type) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• hulk (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Kuhl, kuhl

Lower Sorbian

Noun

hulk m

1. Obsolete spelling of wulk

Declension

Middle Low German

Noun

hulk m

1. Alternative form of holk

References

• "holk" in Köbler, Gerhard, Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch (3rd edition 2014)