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hawker

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Etymology and origin of the English word hawker

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈhɔːkə/[1]
  • US: /ˈhɔkɚ/, /ˈhɑkɚ/[1]

hawker1 falconer

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
the Canons of Edgar
Inherited from
Old English hafocere via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *habukaz

Etymology

The word for the falconer is inherited from Middle English hauker, also haveker,[2][3] inherited from Old English hafocere, also hafecere,[4][5][3][6] formed from hafoc (“hawk”) and the agent suffix -ere,[4][3][7] like fowler.[4] The Old English word for the hawk is from Proto-Germanic *habukaz, the source also of Old Norse haukr and German Habicht.[6][8] The dragonfly sense, recorded from 1937, is formed separately in English from the verb hawk, to hunt on the wing.[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who hunts with hawks, or keeps and trains them; a falconer: in the Old English Canons of Edgar, which forbid a priest to be a hunter or a hawker.[4][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to before the 12th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English haukers or honters were hunters with hawks, and a lord's household paid its hawkerys in 1463.[2] The Old English word also survives in place names such as Halford and Harcourt, and as a surname.[10][2] The falconer's word has been largely displaced by falconer, but the OED still records it,[4] and since 1937 naturalists have used hawker for a dragonfly that patrols an area hunting on the wing.[4][9][3]

Timeline

  • Old English – a falconer.[4][5]
  • c. 1425 – Middle English haukers, hunters with hawks.[2]
  • 1937 – a dragonfly that hunts on the wing, especially one of the family Aeshnidae.[4][9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A falconer; one who hunts with, breeds or trains hawks.[3][4][9]
  2. An animal that catches its prey on the wing, especially a large dragonfly of the family Aeshnidae.[3][4][9]

hawker2 street seller

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1398 a Latin record from Beverley
Borrowed from
Middle Low German hōker
Ultimate origin
Middle Low German hōken

Etymology

The word for the street seller is probably borrowed from Middle Low German hōker (“retail dealer, huckster”),[4][11][3][2][9] and its form was influenced by the falconer's word hawker1: Merriam-Webster calls it a folk etymology.[3][7] It survives as Low German höker and is related to Dutch heuker,[4][7][12] and Middle Dutch had hoeker and hac.[2] It is formed from hōken (“to peddle, carry on the back, squat”),[3][6][8] and the OED notes that the Low German dealer has been explained both as one who carries a pack on his back and as one who sits at a stall.[4] The verb is related to Middle Dutch hoken (“to peddle”) and Old Norse húka (“to squat”),[3][8] from Proto-Germanic *huk-.[6][8] Weekley suggested that the Low German word took its English form from the falconer's hawker, which in Middle English also meant a travelling dealer in foreign hawks.[13] The word is related to huckster,[12][9][7] and the verb hawk, to peddle, is a back-formation from it.[6][12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A peddler who carries his wares about: the earliest records are in Latin documents, one written at Beverley in 1398 (haukers roaming the streets) and in a record of 1409, which speaks of traders carrying their goods on their backs, called haukers.[2] Barnhart dates the word to 1409 and finds it implied in hauking, peddling, in 1390.[8] Etymonline gives about 1400,[6] and the OED's first quotation is from the records of Nottingham, 1510.[4]

Semantic evolution

In York in about 1390 hauking was selling from house to house rather than in a shop or market.[2] By the 16th century the hawker was the itinerant seller who cried his goods in the street,[4] and Johnson (1755) defined him as one who sells his wares by proclaiming them in the street, quoting Swift on writings "bawled about by common hawkers".[14] From 1707 the word could also mean the horse a hawker used.[4] Etymonline and the OED note that a hawker was later distinguished from a pedlar by using a horse and cart or a van,[6][4][9] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise has a sense for one who sells with a beast of burden or a vehicle.[3]

Timeline

  • 1398 – haukers, peddlers roaming the streets, in a Latin record from Beverley.[2]
  • 1510 – one who goes from place to place selling goods, or cries them in the street.[4][3]
  • 1678 – verb hawker, to act as a hawker.[4]
  • 1707 – a horse used in hawking goods.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who goes about selling goods, especially by calling out in the street; a peddler: A hawker was selling roasted chestnuts outside the station.[3][4][14]
  2. A seller of goods who travels with a horse and cart or a van.[3][9][4]

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged has a third hawker, from the verb hawk "to clear the throat", for someone who does so habitually,[3] and in American slang a hawker is a gob of spat phlegm.[15]

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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Smith, A. H. (1956), English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols. (English Place-Name Society 25–26), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  12. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com

Related etymologies

  • stove · also from Middle Low German
  • scrub · also from Middle Low German
  • damp · also from Middle Low German
  • wig · also from Middle Low German
  • knob · also from Middle Low German
  • stump · also from Middle Low German
  • skipper · also from Middle Low German
  • tack · also from Middle Low German
Cite this entry

“Hawker.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/hawker. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·