1724 Hamp

I’m always curious about words we use to describe stuff. Why do we go down certain roads and not others? Like you never see the word "hamp." Seems like it would be useful. Maybe for a damp handkerchief.
But you see the word "hank" used in a couple of ways. As in Hank the name, short for Henry of all things, and the term "hank of hair" from the famous song. You know the one. The guy sings, "You take a hank of hair and a piece of bone, you got a walking talking honey comb." Weird huh? And it was apparently a love song of some sort.
So how much is a hank? Is it 20 or more strands? A handful? Less than a scalp cut from an unfortunate pioneer invading aboriginal lands?
How about the word hump? An odd word. Is it some variant of bump? I started with a bump then it got bigger and I ended up with a hump.
The railroads once used the word hump to describe the act of over-vigorous coupling. When two boxcars were pushed together too quickly the connectors would overlap and damage the cars. That was called humping, so boxcars would often have the warning, "Do Not Hump" painted on them. Much to the delight of teenage boys everywhere.
So the word for a distended protuberance made the leap to a verb for describing the action which could lead to a similar looking arc of boxcars.
Then there's the word gist. As in I have the gist of it. I think it sounds like the present form of jest. Surely you jest. I used to jest. Currently I gist.
Funny. Nobody's ever been known to jast. Another completely wasted word. It makes you want to cry.
Someone hand me a hamp.
America ya gotta love it.