Etymologically
Log in

hooker

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 18:42. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈhʊkə/[1]
  • US: /ˈhʊkɚ/[1]

hooker1 one who hooks; prostitute

Etymology

The agent noun is formed from English hook + -er, from the verb hook.[2][3][4][5] The verb goes back to hōc (“hook, angle”).[4] The sense "prostitute" has drawn several popular explanations.[4][6] Bartlett's “Dictionary of Americanisms” (1859) took it as "a resident of the Hook", Corlear's Hook, a district of New York with many houses frequented by sailors,[4][6] and it is often traced to the soldiers of General Joseph Hooker in the American Civil War (1863).[4][6] Both explanations are ruled out as the origin by the word's earlier record, from 1835;[6][2] Etymonline and Green's Dictionary of Slang take it as a woman who hooks or snares her clients, perhaps reinforced by the place name.[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thief who snatched goods with a hook, a pilferer: 1567, in Thomas Harman's Caveat for Common Cursetors,[2][5] which describes hokers, or Angglers as thieves who work by night.[6]

Semantic evolution

The thieves' sense belonged to the cant of the 16th and 17th centuries,[6][3] and in modern slang it was used of a watch-stealer.[2] The sense "prostitute" appears in New York in 1835, in a court report in which a witness says that the woman "allers hangs around the hook";[2][6] a North Carolina letter of about 1845 uses it too, long before the Civil War.[4][6] It began in the United States and was chiefly American,[2][3] and Collins labels it American and Canadian slang.[7] From 1880 Hookers was a name for Amish Mennonites, who fastened their clothes with hooks and eyes rather than buttons.[2][5][8] Other uses follow the many senses of the verb: an American cow that hooks with its horns (1866),[2] the rugby player who hooks the ball in the scrum (1905),[2][3] a cricketer who plays the hook stroke (1900) and a hooked golf ball (1908).[2] In American underworld slang a hooker was also an arrest warrant (1935) and a hidden catch or drawback (1966).[6] In Lincolnshire dialect it could mean a thing of large size.[9]

Timeline

  • 1567 – a thief who snatches things with a hook.[2][5]
  • 1835 – a prostitute, in New York.[2][6]
  • 1866 – a cow or ox that hooks with its horns (U.S.).[2]
  • 1880 – one who fastens clothes with hooks, an Amish Mennonite.[2]
  • 1900 – in cricket, a batter who plays the hook stroke.[2]
  • 1905 – in rugby, the player in the middle of the front row of the scrum.[2]
  • 1908 – in golf, a hooked ball.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (slang) A prostitute: The novel follows a young hooker in 1920s Chicago.
  2. (rugby) The forward in the middle of the front row of a scrum, who tries to win the ball by hooking it.
  3. A person or thing that hooks.
  4. (historical slang) A thief who snatched goods with a hook.

Word family

  • hookerish

hooker2 fishing boat

Etymology

The boat is apparently borrowed from Dutch hoeker,[2][3][5][10][11][7] which the OED and MW trace to the earlier hoeckboot (“fishing boat”), Middle Dutch hoecboot, from hoec (“fishhook”) and boot (“boat”).[2][5][10] The Dutch noun is thus related to hook.[3][11] Weekley notes that hoekboot is recorded from 1262, and also considered a link with the Dutch word for a huckster, since the boats were small traders much used on canals.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A two-masted Dutch vessel used for fishing or coastal trade: 1641.[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

From 1801 the name was used of a one-masted fishing smack of the Irish coast and of south-western England, built like a hoy.[2][3] Wright's English Dialect Dictionary records it in Ireland as a one-masted fishing boat.[9] From 1823, in Fenimore Cooper, sailors applied it slightingly or fondly to any ship,[2][3] and MW and the AHD define it as an old or clumsy vessel.[5][10] Weekley records the older spellings howker and hawker.[12] Collins describes the modern Irish boat, once used for cargo, as now sailed for pleasure and racing.[7]

Timeline

  • 1641 – a two-masted Dutch coasting or fishing vessel.[2][5]
  • 1801 – a one-masted fishing smack of Ireland and south-west England.[2]
  • 1823 – any ship, said slightingly or fondly.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A one-masted fishing or sailing boat of the west of Ireland, once used for cargo and now also for racing.
  2. A two-masted Dutch fishing boat or coasting vessel.
  3. An old or clumsy ship.

Usage notes

A further hooker, a glass or dram of whisky or another spirit, often in a stiff hooker, is recorded from 1833 in dialect and North American colloquial use and is of unknown origin.[2][3] The AHD suggests that it comes from the hook-like bend of the arm raised to drink.[10] The OED also has Hooker or Hooker's green, a bright green watercolour named after the botanical artist William Hooker (1860).[2]

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 p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ 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)
  10. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray