Hunch

Hunch

Noun & Verb · /hʌntʃ/ · an instinctive feeling; to bend forward

Definition

A hunch is a strong intuitive feeling about something — a sense that something is true or will happen, without obvious logical proof. As a verb, to hunch means to bend or arch the body forward, drawing the shoulders up. Both meanings share a root idea: something curved inward, concentrated, ready.

Origin

From early Scots and northern English dialect — probably related to the old Norse hunka, meaning a lump or chunk. The bodily sense came first: to hunch was to push or shove, then to crouch and curve. The mental sense — a gut feeling — emerged in American English in the late 19th century, likely from the idea of a hump or bulge of intuition pressing forward.