hammock

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish hamaca, from Taíno *hamaka (compare Lokono hamaka, Wayuu jama'a), from Proto-Arawak *hamaka. Columbus, in the narrative of his first voyage, says: “A great many Indians in canoes came to the ship to-day for the purpose of bartering their cotton, and hamacas, or nets, in which they sleep.”

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhæmək/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈhæmək/, /ˈhæmɪk/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æmək

Noun

hammock (plural hammocks)

1. A swinging couch or bed, usually made of netting or canvas about six feet (1.8 meters) wide, suspended by clews or cords at the ends.
   • 1638, Tho[mas] Herbert, Some Yeares Travels Into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique. , 2nd edition, London: R Bip for Iacob Blome and Richard Bishop, →OCLC, book I, page 7:

     […] the poore ſaylers, who […] commonly get forthwith into their beds (or hamackoes) reſting their tyred bodies […]

2. (US, archaic outside dialects) A piece of land thickly wooded, and usually covered with bushes and vines.

Derived terms

• banana hammock
• hammock netting
• hammockless
• hammocky

Translations

Verb

hammock (third-person singular simple present hammocks, present participle hammocking, simple past and past participle hammocked)

1. (intransitive) To lie in a hammock.
   • 1901, Yone Noguchi, The American Diary of a Japanese Girl (wiki article):

     "I fancied that we — I and who? — hammocked among the summer breezes."

2. (transitive, of a cloth) To hang in a way that resembles a hammock.
   • 2013, Mary Jo Putney, Patricia Rice, Susan King, Christmas Roses: Love Blooms in Winter‎:

     "She hammocked their plaids between the table and the bed, then edged her way past Kenneth as she approached the central hearth."

3. (transitive) To make something be wrapped tight, like in a hammock.
   • 1960, John D. MacDonald, The Only Girl in the Game‎:

     "She hammocked her breasts into her bra, snapped it, hitched at it, and gave herself a profile glance in the mirror."

4. (transitive, broadcasting) To schedule (a new or unpopular programme) between two popular ones in the hope that viewers will watch it.

   Coordinate term: tentpole

Further reading

• hammock on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Swedish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English hammock. Derived from Spanish hamaca. Ultimately derived from Taíno *hamaka. First attested in 1853.

Doublet of hängmatta (“hammock; suspended bed”).

Noun

hammock c

1. A hammock; a canopy swing; a freestanding garden furniture with a suspended couch.

Declension

See also

• hängmatta (“hammock; suspended bed”)

References