Hug

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /hʌɡ/

Definitions

1. To hold someone closely in one's arms as a sign of affection or comfort
2. To encircle another individual with one’s arms as a means of conveying emotional warmth, tenderness, or reassurance
3. To wrap one's arms tightly around someone to express love or support

Etymology: The verb "hug" first appears in English around 1560 as "hugge," meaning to embrace or clasp with the arms. Its likeliest ancestry is a blend of two older words with rather different ideas. One was "huck," meaning to crouch or huddle down, which suggests a body folded in on itself. The other was Old Norse "hugr," meaning mind, heart, or thought, which is related to Icelandic "hugga," meaning to comfort. The modern sense of a warm, close embrace seems to combine the physical image of huddling with the emotional idea of comfort. The Old English word "hyġe," meaning thought, is a relative of this same family, and it is the root of the modern English "high" in one of its senses (the "high" that is unrelated to height). So "hug" and "high" share an ancient connection through the idea of thinking and the mind, even though they now look and sound nothing alike.

Synonyms: embrace, cuddle, squeeze, clasp, hold

Antonyms: push away, release, shove, let go, distance