bunker

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See also: Bunker and búnker

English[edit]

WOTD – 17 June 2022

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

A World-War-II-era single-person bunker (noun sense 1) in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
A tank locomotive at Llandudno Junction, Wales, UK, with the bunker (noun sense 3) at the head of the train.
A bunker (sense 4.1) on a golf course.

The origin of the noun is uncertain;[1] the earliest sense is sense 6.1 (“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.”)),[2][3] 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.[4]

Noun[edit]

bunker (plural bunkers)

  1. (military) A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
  2. (nautical) A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
  3. (rail transport) The coal compartment on a tank engine.
    • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in The Railway Magazine, Westminster, London: IPC Transport Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 161:
      Among tank engines, the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement was by far the most numerous, there being nearly 450 of this arrangement, which offers the advantage of good power and adhesive weight, coupled with adequate tank and bunker capacity, within a limited compass.
    • 1941 December, “Notes and News: A Tank Engine's 241-mile Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 569:
      The bunkers of these engines hold enough coal for one round journey of 120½ miles, and water is taken in each direction at Hexham.
  4. (sports)
    1. (golf) A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.
      • 1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter X. Darsie Latimer to Alan Fairford.”; “Letter XI. The Same to the Same.”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 204 and 223:
        [Letter X, page 204] At length I came within sight of them, three in number, where they sat cosily niched, into what you might call a bunker, a little sand-pit, dry and snug, and surrounded by its banks, and a screen of whins in full bloom. […] [Letter XI, page 223] And are ye in the wont of drawing up wi' all the gangrel bodies that ye meet on the high road, or find cowering in a sand-bunker upon the links?
        Used to refer to a sand-filled hollow in general.
    2. (paintball) An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
  5. (Britain, chiefly historical) A large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house.
  6. (Scotland)
    1. A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.
    2. (slang) A kitchen worktop.
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
  • → Catalan: búnquer
  • → German: Bunker
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

bunker (third-person singular simple present bunkers, present participle bunkering, simple past and past participle bunkered)

The Dutch cruise ship MS Prinsendam being bunkered or refuelled by the bunker barge Mozart in the Port of Zeebrugge in Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium.
  1. (nautical)
    1. (transitive) To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.
    2. (intransitive, of a vessel) To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.
    3. (transitive, Nigeria) To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.
  2. (transitive, golf) To hit (a golf ball) into a bunker; (chiefly passive voice) to place (a golfer) in the position of having a golf ball in a bunker.
    1. (idiomatic, UK, informal) To place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder.
  3. (transitive, paintball) To fire constantly at (an opponent hiding behind an obstacle), trapping them and preventing them from firing at other players; also, to eliminate (an opponent behind an obstacle) by rushing to the position and firing at extremely close range as the player becomes exposed.
  4. (intransitive) Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.
    • 2010 May 19, Ben Doherty, “Thai soldiers arrest protest leaders in bloody 'final crackdown'”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      As troops swarmed the streets below and gun battles continued to rage, I bunkered in a room on the top floor of a building in the middle of the red zone. Redshirt spokesman Sean Boonpracong sought refuge there too. Protesters burned a train station below, hurling tyres on to an already roaring blaze across the tracks.
    • 2012 September 17, Michael McKenna, Tony Koch, “Cyclone Yasi crosses coast in North's darkest hour”, in The Australian‎[2]:
      More than 10,000 people were bunkering in 20 emergency shelters across the disaster zone, not all of them cyclone-rated.
    • 2022 March 6, Heather Hamilton, “Kyiv Zoo staff and families care for nearly 4,000 animals amid war in Ukraine”, in Washington Examiner‎[3]:
      The Kyiv Zoo staff and their families are bunkering at the zoo as they care for the animals housed there amid the war in Ukraine.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of — see hinder

Etymology 2[edit]

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).

Noun[edit]

bunker (plural bunkers)

  1. (Britain, slang) One who bunks off; a truant from school.
Translations[edit]
one who bunks off — see truant

Etymology 3[edit]

An Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus), sometimes called a bunker.

Clipping of mossbunker,[5] 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).

Noun[edit]

bunker (plural bunkers)

  1. (US, regional) The menhaden, any of several species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium.
Translations[edit]
species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium — see menhaden

References[edit]

  1. ^ “bunker, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2021.
  2. ^ “bunker, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
  3. ^ “bunker, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ “bunker, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2020; “bunker, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. ^ “bunker, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2018.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English bunker.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bunker m (plural bunkers, diminutive bunkertje n)

  1. bunker (low-lying fortification built into the landscape)
    Synonym: kazemat
  2. (golf) bunker (hole with a surface of sand or dirt, placed on a golf course as a barrier)
  3. bunker, cargo hold, storage room

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from German Bunker.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /buŋ.kɛʁ/, /buŋ.kœʁ/

Noun[edit]

bunker m (plural bunkers)

  1. (military) bunker

Etymology 2[edit]

Borrowed from English bunker.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bunker m (plural bunkers)

  1. (golf) bunker

Further reading[edit]

Indonesian[edit]

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia id

Etymology[edit]

From Dutch bunker, from English bunker, from German Bunker.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): [ˈbʊŋkər]
  • Hyphenation: bung‧kêr

Noun[edit]

bunkêr (plural bunker-bunker, first-person possessive bunkerku, second-person possessive bunkermu, third-person possessive bunkernya)

  1. bunker
    1. (military) a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
    2. (nautical) a container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship's engine.

Alternative forms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology 1[edit]

Noun[edit]

bunker m

  1. indefinite plural of bunke

Etymology 2[edit]

From English bunker.

Noun[edit]

bunker m (definite singular bunkeren, indefinite plural bunkere, definite plural bunkerne)

  1. bunker (storage for fuel on a ship)
  2. bunker (reinforced shelter)
  3. bunker (on a golf course)
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
  • bunkers (fuel oil, military bunker)

References[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English bunker.

Noun[edit]

bunker m (definite singular bunkeren, indefinite plural bunkerar, definite plural bunkerane)

  1. bunker (storage for fuel on a ship)
  2. bunker (reinforced shelter)
  3. bunker (on a golf course)

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

  • bunkers (fuel oil, militsry bunker)

References[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English bunker.[1][2]

Pronunciation[edit]

 

Noun[edit]

bunker m (plural bunkers)

  1. (military) bunker (shelter)

References[edit]

  1. ^ “bunker” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2023.
  2. ^ “bunker” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Serbo-Croatian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /bǔnker/
  • Hyphenation: bun‧ker

Noun[edit]

bùnker m (Cyrillic spelling бу̀нкер)

  1. bunker (hardened shelter)
  2. bunker (container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship's engine)

Declension[edit]

Declension of bunker
singular plural
nominative bunker bunkeri
genitive bunkera bunkera
dative bunkeru bunkerima
accusative bunker bunkere
vocative bunkeru bunkeri
locative bunkeru bunkerima
instrumental bunkerom bunkerima

Spanish[edit]

Noun[edit]

bunker m (plural bunkers)

  1. bunker

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English bunker.

Noun[edit]

bunker c

  1. (military) a bunker
  2. (nautical) a bunker
  3. (golf) a bunker

Declension[edit]

Declension of bunker 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative bunker bunkern bunkrar bunkrarna
Genitive bunkers bunkerns bunkrars bunkrarnas

Related terms[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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