▪ I. huck, n.1 Obs. exc. dial.
(hʌk)
Forms: 5 hoke(bone), 6 huc(bone), huke(bane), 7 huck(bone), 8 huke, 9 dial. hug, heuk, huck.
[Etymology uncertain: see Note below.]
The hip, the haunch.
| 1788 W. Marshall Yorksh. Gloss., Huke, the huckle, or hip. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., I was wounded i' th' huck. 1880 Tennyson Northern Cobbler iv, Once of a frosty night I slither'd an' hurted my huck. |
b. huck-bone (ˈhʌkbəʊn), the hip-bone or haunch-bone; = huckle-bone 1.
| c 1440 Partonope 4166 The lyoun..That flesch and skyn of hys hokebone Wyth his pawe did arace. 1508 Dunbar Flyting w. Kennedie 181 Thy hanchis hirklis, with huke⁓banis harth and haw. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §57 Se that they [fatte oxen] be soft..vpon the hindermost-rybbe, and vpon the hucbone, and the nache by the tayle. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden cix, Good for the pains in the Hips or Huck-bones, called the Hip-gout. 1828 Craven Dial., Hug-baan, the hip bone. 1870 Swaledale Gloss., Heuk⁓beean, the hip-joint. |
c. Comb. huck-backed († huckt-backt), huck-shouldered adjs., hump-backed, crump-shouldered.
| 1631 Heywood 1st Pt. Fair Maid of West ii. i. 14 A little wee-man, and somewhat huckt-backt. 1847–78 Halliwell, Huck-shouldered, hump-backed. |
[Note. The origin of huck is obscure, and the chronological evidence leaves its historical relation to huck-bone, huck-back, huckle, huckle-bone, huckle-back, far from clear. For, while the compound huck-bone is found in 1440, huck itself is not cited till late in the 18th c.; on the other hand, the apparent diminutive huckle, and its compound huckle-bone, are found soon after 1500. The two earliest examples, ME. hoke-bone and Sc. huke-bane, answer exactly in form to hook-bone; but identity of huck with hook n.1, though not impossible, is not greatly favoured by the sense or phonology of the group as a whole. It is possible that the origin is to be sought in the Teutonic root huk-, hūk-, hukk-, to be bent, whence MDu. huken and hukken, MLG. hûken, ON. h{uacu}ka, to crouch, sit bent, sit on the haunches. When the body is bent, the hip-joints play the chief part.]
▪ II. huck, n.2
A commercial shortening of huckaback, q.v.
| 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 513 Various samples of huck, dowlas, ticks, diaper, huck and twill dusters [etc.]. |
▪ III. huck, v. Obs. exc. dial.
(hʌk)
Forms: 5 huk, hukke, 6–7 hucke, 6– huck.
[In form, the base of huckster (q.v.), but the chronological evidence makes their actual relations difficult to determine.
Huck has iterative derivatives, hucker and huckle, which favours its being an old word; it agrees also in form and sense with Ger. dial. hocken, höcken, hucken to huckster: see Grimm.]
intr. To higgle in trading; to haggle over a bargain; to chaffer, bargain. Also fig. To haggle over terms, to stickle.
| 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 566/36 Auccionor, to hukke. 1468 Medulla in Promp. Parv. 252 note, Auccionor, to merchaunt, and huk. a 1529 Skelton Poems, Now adayes as hucksters they hucke and they styck. 1530 Palsgr. 588/2, I love nat to sell my ware to you, you hucke so sore. 1586 Earl of Leicester Lett. (Camden) 323 It is noe reason for me to stand hucking with them for myself. a 1592 H. Smith Serm. (1637) 128 As Christ said to the woman of Samaria, when she huckt to give him water. 1642 Bp. Reynolds Israel's Petit. 17 Thus men huck, and stand upon abatements with Christ in the Bargaine of Salvation. 1658 Manton Exp. Jude 2 As Pharaoh stood hucking with Moses and Aaron. 1895 Gloucestersh. Gloss., Huck, to bargain, chaffer. |
b. quasi-trans.
| 1606 Warner Alb. Eng. xv. xcviii. (1612) 388 Whose holy Noses ouer-hang at Markets, Staules, and Sacks, There hucking cheapth, here hearkening dearth, to set abroach their Stacks. |
Hence ˈhucking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1551 in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) III. 385 Marry, the hucking is about money matters. 1599 Minsheu Sp. Dict., Recaton, a pinching or hucking fellow in buying or selling. a 1656 Hales Gold. Rem. (1673) iii. 20 A near, and hard, and hucking chapman shall never buy good flesh. |