bunker n.

"natural earthen incline bordering a body of water," c. 1200, from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse *banki, Old Danish banke "sandbank," from Proto-Germanic *bankon "slope," cognate with *bankiz "shelf" (see bench (n.)). As "rising ground in a sea or rover, shoal," from c. 1600. As "bench for rowers in an ancient galley," 1590s.

There probably was an Old English cognate but it is not attested in surviving documents. The nasalized form likely is a variant of Old Norse bakki "(river) bank, ridge, mound; cloud bank," cognate with Swedish backe, Danish bakke "hill, rising ground."

1758, "sleeping-berth in a vessel," later in a railway car, etc., probably a shortened form of bunker (n.) in its sense of "seat." Bunk-bed (n.) attested by 1869.