hinkelstein

Originally a Rhine Franconian dialect word denoting a number of menhirs in Hesse. Generalised and standardised in the 19th century. The form is analysable as Hinkel (“chicken”) + Stein (“stone”). Likely from of an underlying Hünenstein, from Middle High German hiune (“giant”, literally “Hun”); compare modern German Hüne. This would first have been corrupted to Hühnerstein, and then further to the contemporary form because the word Huhn (“chicken”) was replaced in these dialects with Hinkel (an o