hanker

English

Etymology

With a secondary frequentative suffix -er, ultimately pointing to Proto-Germanic *hankōną, an iterative to *hanhaną (“to hang”). Related to Dutch hunkeren (“to crave”), which continues the zero-grade iterative.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhæŋkə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋkə(ɹ)

Verb

hanker (third-person singular simple present hankers, present participle hankering, simple past and past participle hankered)

1. To crave, want or desire.

   If you hanker for chocolate, you'll like this fudge recipe.

   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 289:

     “O ’tis true enough, faith. I cannot understand Farmer Boldwood being such a fool at his time of life as to ho and hanker after thik^[sic] woman in the way ’a do, and she not care a bit about en.”

   • 1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     “Baked, they were tough; and even boiled, they warn’t things for a hungry man to hanker after.”

   • 1889, Jerome K. Jerome, chapter 7, in Three Men in a Boat […] ‎^[1]:

     I objected. I don’t know whether it is that I am built wrong, but I never did seem to hanker after tombstones myself.

   • 1894, Mark Twain, chapter 1, in Tom Sawyer Abroad:

     […] it made us heroes, and that was what Tom Sawyer had always been hankering to be.

   • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

     She bade him good-night and hurried down the road. Next day he took her in a little watch with a brooch to pin on her dress. She had been hankering for it.

   • 2012 October 13, “Very good, sir”, in The Economist‎^[2], →ISSN:

     […] the newly rich hanker after old aristocratic glitz.

Usage notes

• Usually used with for, as in the example above; after may also be used.

Derived terms

• hankering (noun)

Translations

to want

• Bulgarian: жадувам (bg) (žaduvam), копнея (bg) (kopneja)
• Czech: toužit (cs) impf, prahnout (cs) impf, dychtit impf
• Dutch: hunkeren (nl)
• German: verlangen (de), begehren (de)
• Italian: volere (it), desiderare (it)
• Maori: ohia, hōkaka, koroingo, tōmina
• Russian: хотеть (ru) (xotetʹ), жаждать (ru) (žaždatʹ)
• Sardinian: chègliere, chèrfere, chèrzere
• Spanish: querer (es)
• Ukrainian: дуже хотіти (duže xotity), палко бажати (palko bažaty), жадати (žadaty)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “hanker”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “hanker”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• harken

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

hanker m or f

1. indefinite plural of hank

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• hankar

Noun

hanker m or f

1. indefinite feminine plural of hank