Etymology

haunch

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Today it means: The area encompassing the upper thigh, hip and buttocks on one side of a human, primate, or quadruped animal, especially one that can sit on its hindquarters. Full definition →

Middle English haunche ← Old French hanche ← Frankish *ankijā
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ang-“joint; lith”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*ankijǭ“joint; ankle”
  3. Frankish · derived from*ankijā
  4. Old French · derived fromhanche
  5. Middle English · inherited fromhaunche
  6. English todayhaunch

From Middle English haunche, hanche, from Old French hanche, hance, anche (compare French hanche, Italian anca), from a Germanic source, probably Frankish *ankijā, from Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“joint; ankle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ang- (“joint; lith”). Cognate with Old High German ancha, encha, einka (“the leg; joint, bend”) (compare Old High German anchila, enchila (“ankle”), German Hanke (“haunch”), West Frisian hancke (“haunch”). More at ankle.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.