Meaning

originInherited from Middle English hoxen, reduction or back-formation of earlier hoxenen, from the noun *hoxene (only attested as hokschyne, with alteration after schyne), from Old English hōhsinu, from Proto-West Germanic *hą̄hasinu, from Proto-Germanic *hanhasinwō, from *hanhaz (“heel”) + *senawō (“sinew”). Compare hough, huxen, and sinew.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0