An intuitive feeling or guess about something, often without concrete evidence or logical reasoning. It represents a sudden sense or suspicion that something might be true, typically based on subconscious pattern recognition.
Originally meaning 'to push, thrust' from unknown origin, possibly related to 'hump'. The meaning 'intuitive feeling' developed in American English around 1900, possibly from the idea of hunching forward when concentrating or from 'hunch-backed' fortune tellers who claimed special insight. The semantic shift from physical posture to mental state is relatively recent.
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