LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.20 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 20 March 2009 - Volume 01
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From: James Wilson <jawi2300 at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.19 (03) [E]

>From 'A Glossary of North Country Words...' John Trotter Brockett



HUNKERS, haunches. This word seems used by the Northumbrian vulgar only in
the sense of sitting on the hunkers; that is, with the hams resting on the
back part of the ankles, the heels generally being raised from the ground.
Such is the position of a woman milking a cow, which in Durham is called
hencowr fashion, probably from hen and couver, to sit on eggs - from the
position of a brooding hen. A friend of mine connected with a colliery,
where a child had been injured, enquiring of the father how the accident
happened, received the following answer, which I am induced to give as a
specimen of Pit language :-"It was *sitten on its hunkers howking* glinters
fra amang the het ass, when the lowe teuck its claes, and brant it the varry
a*se ;" which may be translated, it was sitting on its haunches digging
vitrified shining scoriæ among the hot ashes, when the flame caught its
clothes, and burnt it to the very buttocks.



HOWK, to dig, to scoop. Su.-Got. holka, cavare. HOWKY, a pitman.
(Suio-Gothic, or ancient language of Sweden.)



HOUGHER, the public whipper of criminals, the executioner of felons, in
Newcastle—still a regular officer of the town, with a yearly salary of £4.
6s. 8d. He is said to have obtained this name from a power which he had
formerly of cutting the houghs, or rather the sinews of the houghs, of swine
that were found infesting the streets. In Ruddiman's excellent Glossary to
Gawin Douglas's Translation of Virgil's Æneis, to *hoch*, from Sax. *hoh*,
is rendered "suffragines succidere," to hamstring.



Also, 'sitten on ya hunkers' in Danish would be 'at sidde på hug'.



James

Copenhagen

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