Etymology

bunker

bunk·er
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Today it means: A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks. Full definition →

Scots bunker ← Early Scots bunker ← Old Norse bunki
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bunker · noun, verb1

  1. German · borrowed fromBunker
  2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰenǵʰ-“thick”
  3. Proto-Germanic · derived from*bunkô“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”
  4. Old Norse · derived frombunki“a heap”
  5. Early Scots · derived frombunker
  6. Scots · derived frombunker“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”
  7. English todaybunker

The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 7.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots bunker, bunkur, bonker (“a chest or box, often serving as a seat”), probably from Old Norse bunki (“a heap”) (probably whence bunk (“sleeping berth in a ship, train, etc.”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkô (“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick”) or *bʰeg- (“to billow, swell; to arch, bend, curve (?)”). Compare Middle Low German bunge (“drum, container”), Middle High German bunge (“drum”). Sense 1 (“hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks”) was derived from German Bunker during World War II, which was itself from bunker (“large bin or container for storing coal”) (sense 5). The verb is derived from the noun.

bunker · noun2

From bunk (“to fail to attend school or work without permission, to play truant”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns indicating a person or thing that does an action).

bunker · noun3

  1. Dutch · derived frommarsbanker“common scad or Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus)”
  2. English todaybunker

Clipping of mossbunker, a variant of mossbanker, from Dutch marsbanker (“common scad or Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus)”), from Marsdiep (“deep tide-race between Den Helder and Texel in the Netherlands”) + bank (“shallow part of the sea near a coast”) + -er (suffix forming nouns denoting male inhabitants of a place).

Words from the same roots

Old Norsebunki all →

bonxie

Proto-Germanic*bunkô all →

bunch

Proto-Indo-European*bʰenǵʰ- all →

bunchbunbunion

Dutchmarsbanker all →

mossbanker

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.