biker

Etymology

It is formed from English bike + -er,^[2][3][4] at first from the noun and later partly from the verb bike.^[2] The noun bike is a shortened and altered form of bicycle, recorded from 1882 in American English.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cyclist, someone who rides a bicycle: 1883, in the Wheelman,^[2][6] originally a colloquial word.^[2] Green's earliest example is from Punch in 1895.^[7]

Semantic evolution

When bike came to mean a motorcycle, recorded from 1903,^[2] biker followed it: from 1956 the OED records it for a motorcyclist, especially a member of a motorcycle club or gang.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1968, in American English, with reference to club membership,^[4] and Green's first example, from Harper's Magazine in 1968, lists bikers with hippies and dropouts.^[7] The Australian equivalent is bikie.^[4][2]

Timeline

• 1883 – a cyclist.^[2][6]
• 1956 – a motorcyclist, especially a member of a club or gang.^[2]
• 1968 – in Etymonline and Green's, a motorcycle gang member.^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A motorcyclist, especially a member of a motorcycle club or gang: A group of bikers stopped at the roadside cafe.^[6][2][7]
2. A person who rides a bicycle; a cyclist.^[6][2][7]

Related words

• bike
• bicycle
• bikie
• cyclist

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com