A Golf Bunker and a Wartime Bunker Are the Same Word
A bunker is a sand hazard on a golf course, a fuel store on a ship and a fortified shelter. Scotland supplied the original.
A bunker is a sunken sand-filled hazard on a golf course, a fortified underground shelter, or a ship's fuel store. All three come from a Scottish word for a chest or seat with storage inside. Golf gave the world the sand hazard, shipping gave it the coal store, and the twentieth century gave it the concrete shelter.
- A sand hazard in golf. *He landed in the bunker.*
- A fortified shelter. *An underground bunker.*
- A fuel store on a ship. *Coal bunkers.*
- Bunker mentality — defensive isolation. *A bunker mentality took hold.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | bunker | A deep bunker. |
| Plural | bunkers | Greenside bunkers. |
| Verb | bunker | Bunkered down. |
| Compound | bunker mentality | A bunker mentality. |
| Related | trap | A sand trap. |
How it is used in a sentence
- He came out of the bunker in one.Golf.
- They bunkered down for the night.Took shelter.
- Bunker fuel powers large ships.Shipping.
Golf hazards
- Bunker — a sand-filled hollow, called a sand trap in America
- Water hazard — a pond, stream or lake
- Rough — the longer grass outside the fairway
- Fairway — the mown route to the green
- Out of bounds — beyond the course boundary
From Scots *bonkar*, a chest or box seat. Golf carried the word into English generally, and the military sense followed in the twentieth century.
Bunker or sand trap?
Bunker is the official term in the rules of golf and the usual British word. Sand trap is common in American speech.
What is bunker fuel?
The heavy oil used by large ships, named for the bunkers in which coal was once stored.