Quaker

Etymology

It is formed from English quake + -er,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the verb being from Old English cwacian (“to tremble, shudder”), of unknown origin.^[7][2] As a plain agent noun, "one who trembles", it is recorded from the early 15th century.^[7][2] According to George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, the name was first given to him and his followers by Gervase Bennett, a local justice at Derby, in 1650.^[2] His journal says: "This was Justice Bennet of Derby…that first that called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God, and this was in the year 1650."^[2] Barnhart cites the wording "because I bid them, Tremble at the Word of the Lord".^[3] The sources differ on whom Fox was addressing: the justice in Klein,^[8] his opponents in the Shorter Oxford,^[4] his followers in the Oxford Dictionary of English and Etymonline.^[9][7] Barnhart reports that it was used earlier in the 1600s of a foreign sect of women given to fits of shaking in religious fervour, and thinks it probable that Bennet merely used a familiar term.^[3] Etymonline likewise speaks of foreign sects and calls that the likely source.^[7] The OED cites an isolated use of 1647 for the members of a different sect, which suggests to it that the word was already current for anyone who trembled with religious fervour.^[2] Other dictionaries mention the fits that worshippers supposedly had when moved by the Spirit beside Fox's words, without choosing between them.^{[9][4][10][5]} The Oxford Dictionary of English compares shaker.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Perhaps a person who trembles or quakes: before 1425, in the Medulla Grammatice, a rare use.^[2][7] The first record for a member of the Society of Friends is from 1651, in T. Hall's Pulpit Guarded.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The name was at first derogatory,^[2][4][10] and it never became the official name of the Religious Society of Friends.^[7] Trembling in religious awe was an old idea: Etymonline finds it in Old English, and quaking for fear and reverence from the middle of the 14th century.^[7] Quakerism is recorded from 1656.^[3] The plain dress of the Friends then gave the word a further run of senses, for moths (1775), birds (1776) and subdued colours,^[2][7] and a defective coffee bean of 1894 is compared with these.^[2] A Quaker gun, a dummy gun, is recorded from 1800 in the OED and 1809 in American English in Etymonline.^[2][7] Quite apart from the Friends, the quaking grass has been called quakers, chiefly in the English midlands, since 1597.^[2][4]

Timeline

• before 1425 – perhaps a person who trembles or quakes.^[2][7]
• 1597 – in the plural, quaking grass.^[2]
• 1647 – a person who trembles with religious fervour, of a different sect.^[2]
• 1651 – a member of the Religious Society of Friends.^[2][3][7]
• 1775 – a grey or brown moth; also, of plain or drab colours.^[2][7]
• 1776 – a bird with grey or brown plumage.^[2]
• 1800 – a dummy gun, short for Quaker gun.^[2]
• 1894 – a defective coffee bean.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A member of the Religious Society of Friends, a Christian sect founded by George Fox about 1650 that stresses the Inner Light, rejects sacraments and an ordained ministry, and opposes war.^{[10][6][2][11]}
2. One that quakes.^[6][2]
3. Any of various grey or brown noctuid moths.^[6][2][4]
4. Any of various birds with grey or brown plumage, such as the sooty albatross.^[6][2]
5. A dummy gun in a ship or fort, usually of wood.^[6][2][4]
6. A defective, immature coffee bean that discolours when roasted.^[2]
7. (chiefly English regional) In the plural, quaking grass.^[2][4]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the Religious Society of Friends, its beliefs or its practices: a Quaker meeting.^[10][4]
2. Of the plain style or drab colours once worn by Quakers.^[7][4]

Word family

• Quakerism
• Quakerly
• Quakerish
• Quakeress
• Quaker gun

Related words

• quake
• quaking grass

Usage notes

In British dialect quaker is also a verb, to tremble or shake with cold or fear, which Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes as a frequentative of quake.^[6][12] The English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Ireland and England, with forms such as wacker and whacker in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire and Derbyshire.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)