He is hidebound, he is an HUNGARIAN

Insights

Extreme Parsimony

The proverb characterizes a miser whose greed is so intense that he lives as if he were starving. He refuses to 'expand' his resources or generosity, remaining tightly constricted like a sick animal.

Inflexibility of Character

Just as a hidebound animal's skin has no give, the person is rigid, unyielding, and incapable of adapting to social or charitable norms.

The Geographical Pun

The term 'Hungarian' is used here specifically for paronomasia (punning) on the word 'hungry' or 'hunger.' In early modern English cant and humor, to be a 'Hungarian' was to be a rapacious, starving, or pinch-penny individual. It does not reflect a genuine ethnographic observation of the Hungarian people but rather a linguistic convenience.

Veterinary Origins

'Hidebound' originated as a term in husbandry describing cattle with morbidly tight skin, often caused by malnutrition or internal disease. Applying this to a human suggests that miserliness is not just a habit but a pathology—a sickness that renders the human spirit emaciated and unhealthy.

Definition of the Curmudgeon

John Ray’s 1670 citation explicitly links these terms to define a 'Curmudgeon.' This triangulation helps map the historical concept of the curmudgeon not merely as a grumpy old man, but specifically as a 'churlish miser' who pinches pennies to the point of self-deprivation.

Cant and Canting language

The use of 'Hungarian' fits into the tradition of 'canting' or beggar’s argot of the 16th and 17th centuries, where elaborate codes and puns (like 'going to Bedfordshire' for sleep) turned mundane conditions into inside jokes.

Rhetorical Devices

Paronomasia

The core of the wit relies on the phonetic similarity between 'Hungarian' and 'hunger-ian' (one prone to hunger/greed), turning a demonym into a description of vice.

Zoomorphism

Applying the veterinary term 'hidebound' to a person reduces them to the status of livestock, emphasizing the physical repulsiveness of their greed.

Asyndeton

The omission of conjunctions between the clauses ('He is hidebound, he is an Hungarian') creates a rapid, declarative rhythm that piles up the insults for emphasis.