Is there an English word describing the action hitting something with your head?
For example: to hit someone with your head; the action of goats hitting each other with their heads.
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8The verb is to butt– JimCommented Aug 8, 2015 at 4:45
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I've just remembered. There is another verb, "to ram" (to strike with violence), but it doesn't necessarily involve the head, although it is derived from the noun, ram, a male sheep.– Mari-Lou ACommented Aug 8, 2015 at 6:00
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When hitting the head is unintentional, "bonk" is the usual term in the US. "Butt" would be the norm for intentionally hitting something with your head. (Except for the idiom "beating [or banging] your head against the wall", which indicates extreme frustration with some recalcitrant something.)– Hot LicksCommented Aug 8, 2015 at 12:12
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4 Answers
When two people are fighting, and one hits the other with their forehead, this is often called a "headbutt." Is this the sort of situation that you're considering?
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@user132235 you can accept this answer by clicking on the green check below the arrow thereby telling users that the question has been solved, or, you can wait a couple of hours and see if anyone suggests something better (I strongly doubt it, though!). Commented Aug 8, 2015 at 5:52
As mentioned, headbutt is the common term. But a neat non-compound word with the same meaning is bunt.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bunt
bunt
verb (used with object)
- (of a goat or calf) to push with the horns or head; butt.
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The full OED says this sense of bunt is "chiefly dialectal*. Their first citation is an 1825 glossary of Wiltshire dialect saying it means to strike with the head, and their most recent is an 1875 dictionary of Sussex dialect defining it as to rock a cradle with the foot. I've lived in Sussex most of my life, and I didn't know of the usage until just now. Commented Aug 8, 2015 at 11:55
On't swede. Which means on the head. Usually used in football, however can be used to suggest the use of you head to hit something.
Another sheep-related one is tup, though that might be considered slang. It's in Late Night on Watling Street where two lorry drivers fight, IIRC.
