Meanings
plural Huks
- PhilippinesUShistoricalA member of the Hukbalahap.
But sooner or later, there will be decisions to make: I cannot go to your country for I am known as a Huk; you could not stay in mine if your sympathies for us are discovered.
1963, William J. Pomeroy, The Forest, a Personal Record of the Huk Guerrilla Struggle in the Philippines, page 311 more example
Whether portrayed as masculine warriors, female seducers, or wayward mothers, Huk Amazons were regarded as extraordinary and unconventional Filipinas: communist guerrillas trained to fight as soldiers against the government and women who lived in the forests, fraternized with men, and had children outside marriage.
2009 April 22, Vina A. Lanzona, Amazons of the Huk Rebellion: Gender, Sex, and Revolution in the Philippines, Univ of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 31
Origin
- Hokkien服務 /服务“service”
- Tagaloghukbo“army”
- TagalogHukbalahap
- EnglishHuk
Clipping of Hukbalahap, from Tagalog Hukbalahap, an abbreviation of Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (“People's Army Against the Japanese”). The initial word itself where the abbreviation comes from is from Tagalog hukbo (“army”), which itself is derived from Hokkien 服務 /服务 (ho̍k-bū, “service”).
More words from Tagalog, Hokkien
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Huk. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Huk
“Huk.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Huk. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Huk,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Huk.
Source: Huk on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.