to nod (move one's head)
“J’entrevis aussitôt une lueur, dans le mystère de sa présence, et j’interrogeai brusquement : « Tu viens donc d’une autre planète ? » Mais il ne me répondit pas. Il hochait la tête doucement tout en regardant mon avion : « C’est vrai que, là-dessus, tu ne peux pas venir de bien loin... »” — I immediately saw a glimmer in the mystery of his presence, and I asked abruptly: — So you come from another planet? But he didn’t answer me. He nodded his head slowly while looking at my plane: — It’s obvious that, you couldn’t have come from far away...
Inherited from Middle French hochier, from Old French hochier (“to shake, jostle, stir, swing, move, twitch”), from Frankish *hotsōn, *hottisōn, from *hottōn (“to shake, toss”), from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to swing, rock, shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ket- or *kwēt- (“to shake, rock back and forth”). See also hod. Cognates * Dutch hutsen, hutselen (“to shake, shudder”) * English hustle * Old English hūdenian (“to rock, shake”)