climber

Etymology

It is formed from English climb + -er,^[2][3][4] first as climber, also climare, from climben.^[5][4] Climb is from Old English climban (“to raise oneself with hands and feet, ascend”), from Proto-West Germanic *klimban (“to go up by clinging”), the source also of Dutch klimmen and German klimmen.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or thing that climbs: 1423, in the Kingis Quair.^[2][5] The MED dates its manuscript to about 1500 and has earlier quotations from the Promptorium Parvulorum (1440), glossing Latin scansor, and one from Malory, who writes "I am an evyll clymber, and the tre is passynge hyghe".^[5] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start it was also used figuratively of a person who keeps trying to rise in the world,^[2] the sense that survives in social climber.^[6][4] Botanists called a plant that climbs by fastening itself to a support a climber from 1640;^[2] Etymonline dates this to the 1630s.^[3] Johnson (1755) gave both senses, one that mounts or scales a place, and a plant that creeps upon other supports.^[7] Ornithologists used climbers from 1828 for an order of birds with climbing habits,^[2] and it named a spurred boot for climbing poles or trees from 1874.^[2] In thieves' slang a climber was a cat burglar, recorded in Green's dictionary from 1891 and in the OED from 1900.^[8][2]

Timeline

• 1423 – a person or thing that climbs; also figurative, one who seeks to rise.^[2]
• 1640 – a climbing plant.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1630s.^[3]
• 1828 – in the plural, an order of climbing birds.^[2]
• 1874 – a spurred boot for climbing.^[2]
• 1891 – a cat burglar.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or animal that climbs, especially one who climbs mountains or rock faces as a sport: The climbers roped up below the summit ridge.^[4][6][2]
2. A plant that grows upward by twining round or clinging to a support, such as a vine: Ivy is a vigorous climber.^[6][4][2]
3. A social climber.^[6][4]
4. A device that helps someone climb, such as a spiked iron worn to climb poles.^[4][2]
5. (slang) A cat burglar.^[8][2]

Word family

• social climber

Related words

• climb
• clamber

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com