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cocker

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Etymology and origin of the English word cocker

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒkə/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑkəɹ/[1]

cocker1 quiver; legging

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Vespasian Psalter
Inherited from
Old English cocer via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old English cocer

Etymology

The word for the quiver and the legging is inherited from Middle English coker,[2][3] inherited from Old English cocer, also cocor, a quiver.[2][4][5][6] It is cognate with Old Frisian kōker, Old Dutch cocare, Dutch koker, Middle Low German kȫker, Old High German kohhar and German Köcher, all meaning a quiver or case.[6][5][7] The OED takes the Germanic word as ultimately borrowed from an Asian language, probably through the Huns in the late 4th and 5th centuries, and compares Turkic and Mongolic words for a leather bottle;[6] Köbler likewise suggests a Hunnish source for the Germanic form *kukur-.[8] The OED compares Medieval Latin cucurum and Byzantine κούκουρον (koúkouron), both meaning a quiver, of the same ultimate origin.[6][7] The legging is named for its likeness in shape and material, originally leather, to a quiver.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A case for arrows, a quiver, in the Old English glosses of the Vespasian Psalter.[6] In Old English it glossed Latin pharetra.[4][9] Lazamon's Brut (about 1275) has enne koker fulne flan, a quiver full of arrows.[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The quiver sense lasted until 1525.[6] From about 1390, in Langland's Piers Plowman, cockers were leggings or protective coverings for the legs and feet;[6][2] the Shorter Oxford describes them as high laced boots.[5] The OED notes that a Norfolk surname, Cokerhose (1301), may imply this sense earlier, but the reading is very uncertain.[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged records the boot or legging as dialect in England and the archer's ground quiver as a technical sense.[3]

Timeline

  • Old English – a quiver for arrows (obsolete by 1525).[6][4]
  • c. 1390 – leggings or gaiters, usually in the plural.[6][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dialect) A half boot or legging, usually one of a pair.[3][6][5]
  2. (archery) A ground quiver.[3]
  3. (obsolete, Old English–1525) A quiver for arrows.[6][5][2]

cocker2 pamper

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1440 Promptorium Parvulorum
Ultimate origins
Old English coccProto-Germanic *-ārī
Etymology tree of cocker2
inherited borrowed derived
English cock
English cocker
From the same root · cocker2
English cockpit ← cock
English cocktail ← cock
English cocky ← cock
English gamecock ← cock
English shuttlecock ← cock

Etymology

The verb meaning to pamper is inherited from Middle English cokeren,[2][3][11] of uncertain origin.[12][13][5] The OED takes it as probably formed from English cock (“to pamper”) + -er (“frequentative suffix”), from a verb cock that is recorded only later, or from its probably imitative base, and compares Norwegian regional kokra;[6][11] Merriam-Webster Unabridged derives it from Middle English cok (“male fowl”) with a frequentative suffix.[3] Klein explains it as making a pet cock of someone, comparing Old French coqueliner (“to pamper”), from coq (“cock”),[7] and Weekley compares Middle Dutch kokelen as well.[14] The OED rejects attempts to connect it with cocker, to totter.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pamper or coddle: 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses it with Latin refoveo.[6][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to the 15th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb was used chiefly of indulging children: the Authorized Version (1611) of Ecclesiasticus has "Cocker thy childe, and hee shall make thee afraid", and Locke wrote that most children's constitutions were spoiled by cockering.[5][15] From about 1561 to 1902 it could also mean to foster a foolish desire or belief, and between 1571 and 1823 to humour a person in one;[6] the phrase cocker up appears too.[3][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to cade; to fondle; to indulge", deriving it from French.[15] By the 19th century it was a dialect word in much of England and Scotland, recorded in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Sussex, Devon and elsewhere,[16] and Collins and the OED now label it rare or regional.[17][6]

Timeline

  • 1440 – to pamper, coddle, especially a child.[6][2]
  • c. 1561 – to foster a foolish desire or belief (obsolete by 1902).[6]
  • 1571 – to humour a person in something (obsolete by 1823).[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (rare) To pamper, coddle or indulge, especially a child: Her grandparents cockered her with sweets.[17][3][6]
  2. cocker up: to nurse or encourage indulgently.[3][5]

cocker3 cockfighter; spaniel

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1655 before 1655, Nicholas L'Estrange
Ultimate origin
Old English cocc
Etymology tree of cocker3
inherited borrowed derived
English cock
English cocker
From the same root · cocker3
English cockpit ← cock
English cocktail ← cock
English cocky ← cock
English gamecock ← cock
English shuttlecock ← cock

Etymology

The word for the cockfighter and the spaniel is formed from English cock + -er,[6][3][18][7] after cocking, the shooting of woodcock.[6][12] The spaniel was so called because it was bred to flush woodcock and similar game.[6][3][19][18] Barnhart connects it with the Middle English cocker, a fighter or quarrelsome man,[20] which the OED treats as a separate formation from the verb cock, recorded from before 1275 to 1500.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who breeds or trains gamecocks or promotes cockfights: before 1655, in Nicholas L'Estrange.[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1689.[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the noun only as a follower of cockfighting.[15] The dog was first a cocking spaniel (1762);[6] cocker alone is recorded from 1790,[6] and cocker spaniel from 1829.[6] Etymonline and Barnhart date the dog sense to 1811,[19][20] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives about 1811 for cocker and 1840 for cocker spaniel.[3]

Timeline

  • before 1655 – a breeder of gamecocks, a cockfighter.[6]
  • 1790 – a cocker spaniel.[6] Etymonline dates this sense to 1811.[19]
  • 1829 – cocker spaniel.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cocker spaniel, a small spaniel with long ears and a silky coat, bred originally to flush woodcock.[3][6][19]
  2. A person who keeps or handles gamecocks; a cockfighter.[3][6][15]

Word family

  • cocker spaniel

Usage notes

British informal English also has cocker as a form of address to a man, especially old cocker, recorded from 1888 and likewise formed from cock;[6][17][21] Scottish and English dialects had several other words cocker, among them a cockfighter, a short prop in a coal mine, and the verb to totter.[16][6] The phrase according to Cocker, correct or by the rules, comes from the name of Edward Cocker, whose arithmetic book was published after his death in 1678.[6][17]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ 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 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  10. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ 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)
  17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  19. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  20. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  21. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com

Related etymologies

  • knoll · also from Old English
  • tonnage · also from Old English
  • clew · also from Old English
  • godmother · also from Old English
  • clapper · also from Old English
  • seaport · also from Old English
  • mulch · also from Old English
  • thud · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Cocker.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/cocker. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·