Just at the time when the merchants want money the most, and when, to carry one their business properly and successfully, they absolutely need it, the banks are short-haven’t a cent-can’t discount a dollar-“are absolutely borrowing to keep all hunk.”Īnd it’s recorded in the 1859 second edition of Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms: The great peculiarity of these institutions is, that they have plenty of money when everybody else has, and none when others have none. It is not a little singular that in one instance only did the favorite win! Those who lost their money on Fashion, had two or three chances to “get hunk,” especially on the last day.Īnd it appears regarding bank reserves in an article in New York’s Weekly Day Book with a dateline of 12 August 1853: Hunk appears in the phrase to get hunk, meaning to be made whole after a loss, in a article in The Spirit of the Times about a horse race: It most likely is an expansion of the older slang term hunk, meaning safe, in a good position, which in turn is from the Frisian honcke or honck, a refuge, safe place, home, which appears in children’s games in New Amsterdam and later in New York before entering adult slang in the nineteenth century. The term appears in the 1860s, and while its origin isn’t known for certain, we have a pretty good idea how it came about. Hunky dory is an Americanism meaning satisfactory, fine.

Ditto urban dictionary