Etymologically
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badger

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbæd͡ʒə/[1]
  • US: /ˈbæd͡ʒɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is probably formed from English badge + -ard, from the white mark that the animal bears on its forehead like a badge;[2][3][4][5][6][7] early spellings were bageard and badgerd.[4][7] Merriam-Webster derives it instead from badge with the suffix -er,[8] and the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of English say only that it is perhaps from badge.[9][10] The OED compares bauson, an older name for the badger from Old French bauzan (“black-and-white spotted”), and Middle French blarel, now blaireau (“badger”), which is now thought to come from a colour term.[2][6][5] The objection is that badge is not recorded for a mark on an animal, the usual word being blaze: Barnhart therefore calls the origin unknown, and Weekley found the derivation very unlikely.[11][6][12] Earlier etymologists, as Weekley reports, took the animal's name from that of the grain dealer, on a supposed parallel with blaireau as if from Old French blé (“corn”); the OED rejects this.[12][2] In Old English the animal was called brocc, a Celtic loan, the source of brock,[13][7][6][11] or grǣg (“grey”), Middle English grey.[6][7][13] The verb is a conversion of the noun, from the sport of badger-baiting, in which dogs were set on a badger.[6][10][14][12][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The burrowing animal, Meles meles: about 1523, in John Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry.[2][11][8]

Semantic evolution

The word replaced the older names brock, bauson and grey in general use from the 16th century;[7][12] bauson was used from the 14th to the 18th century and grey from the 15th to the 17th.[7] By confusion it was briefly applied to a beaver or an otter (1591–1601),[2] then from 1769 to related or similar animals elsewhere; in early Australian use it meant a rock wallaby or a bandicoot, and in Tasmania it still means a wombat.[2] From 1863 a badger is also a brush made of badger hair, for painting or shaving.[2] In the United States the word was used from 1833 for a lead miner in Wisconsin who lived in a dugout, then from 1844 for any native or inhabitant of the state.[2][6] In criminals' slang, first American, a badger was from 1858 one of the partners in the badger game, a blackmail trick.[2][15] The verb, to pester or harass persistently, is recorded from 1782 in the OED and Merriam-Webster,[2][8] from 1790 in Etymonline, and 1794 in Barnhart.[6][11] Etymonline ties it to the dogs in badger-baiting, still found at low public houses in late 19th-century England, where a badger was put in a barrel and dogs were sent in to drag it out;[6] the OED also notes 17th-century allusions to the badger's supposed tenacity in biting until its teeth met.[2] The phrase to draw the badger, to take part in badger-drawing, is recorded from 1817 and was used figuratively for enticing an opponent into the open.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1523 – the burrowing animal.[2][8][11]
  • 1591 – by confusion, a beaver or an otter (obsolete by 1601).[2]
  • 1769 – an animal related to or resembling the badger.[2]
  • 1782 – verb, to bait, harass, pester.[2][8]
  • 1817 – to draw the badger.[2]
  • 1831 – Tasmania, a wombat.[2]
  • 1833 – United States, a lead miner in Wisconsin.[2][6]
  • 1844 – a native or inhabitant of Wisconsin.[2]
  • 1858 – criminals' slang, a participant in the badger game.[2]
  • 1863 – a brush made of badger hair.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A stocky, burrowing, nocturnal mammal of the weasel family, with a grey coat and black and white stripes on its head, such as the Eurasian badger and the American badger.[16][8][2]
  2. A brush made from badger hair, used for shaving or painting.[2]
  3. (Australia, chiefly Tasmania) A wombat.[2]
  4. (US, informal) A native or inhabitant of Wisconsin.[2][6]

Verb

  1. To pester or harass someone persistently, especially with demands or questions: The children badgered their father for a puppy.[16][8][2]

Word family

  • badger game

Usage notes

A word badger meaning a dealer licensed to buy grain in one place and sell it in another, and later an itinerant huckster or pedlar, is recorded from before 1500 and survives only in English dialect;[2][8][3][17] its origin is uncertain, and the OED thinks a connection with the animal unlikely on grounds of meaning.[2] Johnson (1755) listed it separately from the animal.[18] In the north of England and the Midlands dialect badger also meant to beat down in price or to haggle.[17][2]

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 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ 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)
  18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.