sucker

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English souker, also soker and suker,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English souken (“to suck”) + -er, that is, from suck and the agent suffix -er.^[5][6][3][2] The verb is suken, sūcan.^[7][4] The verb sucker is from the noun.^[5][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young mammal not yet weaned; also a child at the breast: about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[5] Etymonline dates souker in this sense to the late 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the original sense, one that sucks, the word was applied to things that draw or suck: a shoot from the root or base of a plant, which draws nourishment from the parent (from the 1570s),^[5][4] the piston or valve of a pump (1611, in Cotgrave),^[5][8] an animal's organ for sucking or adhering (1686)^[5] and fishes that seem to feed by suction, especially the North American suckers (1753 in Etymonline, 1772 in the OED).^[4][5] In Scotland and northern England it was also a parasite (from Dunbar, before 1513),^[5][9] and in the United States from 1833 a nickname for the people of Illinois.^[5][4] The best-known modern sense, an easily deceived person, is North American: Etymonline finds it by 1836, the OED in 1838.^[4][5] Etymonline explains it from the naivety of an unweaned animal, the OED treats it as a figurative use of the same sense, and another theory derives it from the sucker fish, easy to catch in its yearly migrations; the contemporary sense “sponger” may have helped.^[4][5] From this came a sucker for, someone who cannot resist something,^[10][11] and sucker as a general word for a person or thing.^[11][9] As a sweet it is recorded from 1823, and as a lollipop, often an all-day sucker, by 1896.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave only “any thing that draws” and the embolus of a pump.^[8] The verb first meant to provide with a valve (1660) and to strip the shoots from tobacco or maize (before 1661, though Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1607); “to cheat, to dupe” is American slang from 1939.^[5][2][9]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – a young animal not yet weaned.^[5]
• c. 1440 – one who sucks with the mouth.^[5]
• ?a1513 – a parasite, a sponger.^[5]
• 1577 – a shoot from the base of a plant.^[5]
• 1607 – verb, to remove suckers from a plant (Merriam-Webster).^[2]
• 1611 – the piston of a pump.^[5]
• 1686 – an organ for sucking or adhering.^[5]
• 1772 – a fish that feeds by suction.^[5]
• 1823 – a sweet.^[4]
• 1833 – a nickname for an inhabitant of Illinois.^[5]
• 1838 – a greenhorn, a dupe.^[5]
• 1939 – verb, to cheat or trick.^[5][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who is easily deceived or cheated; a dupe: The scheme only works if you find enough suckers.^[10][11][5]
2. Someone who cannot resist a particular thing or kind of person: She's a sucker for old musicals.^[10][11]
3. (informal) A person or thing, used without naming it, often as an intensive.^[11]
4. A young animal not yet weaned, especially a suckling pig.^[10][2][5]
5. An organ of an animal used for sucking or for clinging to a surface.^[10][12][5]
6. A cup-shaped rubber device that sticks to a surface by suction.^[10][2]
7. A shoot growing from the root or lower stem of a plant.^[10][5]
8. A North American freshwater fish with thick lips adapted for sucking.^[5][4]
9. The piston or valve of a pump.^[2][5]
10. (US) A lollipop.^[4]

Verb

1. (informal) To trick or cheat someone: He got suckered into buying a fake watch.^[2][11][5]
2. To remove suckers from a plant: sucker the tomatoes.^[2][11][5]
3. Of a plant, to put out suckers.^[2][11][5]

Word family

• suckerlike
• sucker-punch
• bloodsucker
• goatsucker

Related words

• suck
• suckle
• suckling

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ 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.
9. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster