Etymology: In sense 1 < hunch v.; in sense 2 apparently deduced < hunch-backed . Sense 3 may belong to a distinct word; this, although known only from 1790, is found in popular use before 1830 in southern and northern dialects, in the West Indies, and in New England. Compare also hunk n.¹ in same sense, exemplified from 1813.

Etymology: ? < hunch v.

Etymology: Of obscure origin: but compare hinch v. If sense 3 belongs to the same word as senses 1 and 2 (which is doubtful), the sense-development may have been ‘to thrust or shoot out’, ‘to cause to stick out’, and hence ‘to form a projection or protuberance’. It is noteworthy that the first trace of sense 3 appears, not in the simple hunch verb or noun, but in the combination hunch-backed substituted in the 2nd Quarto of Shakespeare's Richard III (1598) iv. iv. 81, for the earlier and ordinary 16–17th cent. word bunch-backed , which the 1st Quarto and all the Folios have here, and which all the Quartos and all the Folios have in the parallel passage i. iii. 246. This substitution of hunch-backed in the one passage might be thought to be a mere misprint of the 2nd Quarto, but it is retained in all the five subsequent Quartos 1602–1634; and the word appears again in 1635, and becomes frequent after 1675. Then we have huncht back 1656, to hunch the back 1678, hunchback 1712, hunch back 1718, and finally, hunch noun c1800. Johnson 1755–87 knew only hunch verb (in senses 2, 3) and hunch-backed . With these words must be considered hulch noun, hulch back , and hulch-backed , in the same senses, given by Cotgrave 1611, which are thus earlier than the hunch group, except for hunch-backed in the Shakespeare Quartos; also the forms hutch back , hutch-back'd , hutch-shouldered , found 1624–1667. We have further to compare the somewhat similar case of hump n., where hump-backed is known earlier than hump noun or verb, or hump-back.