Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Hunking shows up on the ‘Net as a synonym for honking (as in “hunking horns”), but that doesn’t seem like an eggcorn. Honking, meaning “huge”, has been in common use for quite awhile, presumably as a substitution for hulking, but again, I see no eggcornish meaning connection. Recently I stumbled upon a use of hunking that appears to be sired by hulking and midwived by honking (in the sense of huge):
We removed one last week with the help of a hunking huge chain and 3 ton truck!!
blog
My mood quickly changed, however, when the waiter sat the large plate of hunking meat down in front of me.
foodie blog
Finished the hunking Hannibal Lecter Omnibus book.
journal
Hankering down on a hunking piece of Chamoro.
photo caption
Hunking for hulking (perhaps by way of honking) makes eggcornish sense to me, as a hunk conveys a sense of mass, not unlike a hulk.
Note also the use of “hankering” in that last example, describing a woman biting into a hunk of meat voraciously. Maybe somehow her desire (hankering) for the meat got twisted into a verb meaning something like “hunkering down like a cave dweller and tearing into a haunch one has been hankering for”?
Offline
Hunkering in like there’s no Chamorro. It’s a bit like chunking for chucking.
Offline