gecko

Etymology

It is borrowed from Malay gēkoq,^[2][3][4][5] an imitation of the animal's cry.^[2][4][5][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins give the Malay form as ge'kok,^[7][8] the Oxford dictionaries as a dialect geko or gekok,^[9][10] and Hoad as chēchak or chichak;^[11] the American Heritage Dictionary takes it from Javanese ge'kok.^[12] The OED notes that the lizard's note is imitated in other Malay names, such as gaguh, gōke and tōke, and that similar forms in the languages of India gave the earliest English examples.^[2] Dictionary.com and Wiktionary bring the modern form through Dutch gekko, recorded in 1718, and call the further origin uncertain.^[13][1] Earlier English forms were chacco (1711) and jackoa (1727).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A house lizard of warm regions, remarkable for its cry and for climbing walls: 1774, in O. Goldsmith's History of the Earth.^[2][7][4]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that a 1792 claim that the name was current in Egypt was a translator's blunder.^[2] Hobson-Jobson calls it a naturalist's word, not used in Anglo-Indian speech, and also a French one, and lists the imitative names of related lizards: Crawfurd's Malay tăké, tăkék and goké and the Burmese tokté.^[14] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that geckos are harmless destroyers of insects, although often locally thought to be venomous.^[7] Green's Dictionary of Slang records have a gecko at, to take a look at, from 2001, a play on dekko.^[15]

Timeline

• 1711 – the earlier form chacco.^[4]
• 1727 – the form jackoa.^[4]
• 1774 – gecko, a house lizard of warm regions.^[2][7][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of many small, mostly nocturnal lizards of warm regions (family Gekkonidae), with large eyes and adhesive pads on their toes that let them climb smooth walls, and known for their chirping calls; plural geckos or geckoes.^{[7][8][2][10]}

Related words

• tokay

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com