Q: "to huck" = "bother, harass verbally"?

Arnold Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Sun Aug 25 15:49:45 UTC 2013


On Aug 25, 2013, at 8:39 AM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:

> A friend whom I might describe as a North Cantabrigian (that is, of
> Massachusetts) has (but I'm sure uses infrequently) the verb "huck"
> to mean "bother or harass verbally".  Can anyone support or expand on this?
>
> The OED has "huck, v." as "To higgle in trading; to haggle over a
> bargain; to chaffer, bargain. Also fig. To haggle over terms, to stickle."
>
> Looking at "chaffer, v.", I see that it evolved into "3. transf. and
> fig. (from 1, 2). To deal, bargain, haggle, discuss terms, bandy words."
>
> If "huck" = "chaffer" and "chaffer came to mean "bandy words", I can
> imagine "huck" also evolving into "bother verbally".

two possibly relevant postings of mine:

http://arnoldzwicky.org/2011/01/08/hucking-at-huckfests/

http://arnoldzwicky.org/2011/01/10/more-hucking/

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