hock

pronunciation

How to pronounce hock in British English: UK [hɒk] word uk audio image

How to pronounce hock in American English: US [hɑ:k] word us audio image

Noun:

any of several white wines from the Rhine River valley in Germany (`hock' is British usage)
tarsal joint of the hind leg of hoofed mammals; corresponds to the human ankle
Verb:

leave as a guarantee in return for money
disable by cutting the hock

Word Origin

hock: hock: English has three words hock. The oldest, ‘joint of a quadruped corresponding to the human ankle’ [16], is short for an earlier hockshin, which comes from Old English hōhsinu. This meant literally ‘heel-sinew’, and the hōh came from the same prehistoric Germanic source as produced modern English heel. In its original sense it can also be spelled hough, but for ‘joint of bacon’, first recorded in the 18th century, hock is the only spelling. Hock ‘Rhinewine’ [17] is short for an earlier hockamore, an anglicization of Hochheimer (Hochheim, on the river Main, is a centre of German wine production). Hock ‘pawn, debt’ [19] comes from Dutch hok ‘prison’, hence ‘debt’; it was introduced to English by Dutch immigrants in the USA.The -hock of hollyhock, incidentally, comes from Old English hoc ‘mallow’ (and the holly- is an alteration of holy, and has no connection with holly).=> heel

hock (n.1): "joint in the hind leg of a horse," mid-15c., earlier hockshin (late 14c.), from Old English hohsinu "sinew of the heel, Achilles' tendon," literally "heel sinew," from hoh "heel," from Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (cognates: German Hachse "hock," Old English hæla "heel"), from PIE *kenk- (3) "heel, bend of the knee."

hock (n.2): "Rhenish wine," 1620s, shortening of Hockamore, from German Hochheimer, "(wine) of Hochheim," town on the Main where wine was made; sense extended to German white wines in general.

hock (n.3): "pawn, debt," 1859, American English, in hock, which meant both "in debt" and "in prison," from Dutch hok "jail, pen, doghouse, hutch, hovel." The verb is 1878, from the noun.When one gambler is caught by another, smarter than himself, and is beat, then he is in hock. Men are only caught, or put in hock, on the race-tracks, or on the steamboats down South. ... Among thieves a man is in hock when he is in prison. [G.W. Matsell, "Vocabulum," 1859]

3. A string of failed business ventures frequently left him in hock to his creditors .

4. One way to make it manageable is to look at the other side of that deal-the bondholders to whom the land of the free is in hock .