talker

Etymology

It is formed from Middle English talken + -er,^[2][3] the agent noun of the verb talk.^[4][5] The verb itself is apparently a derivative of the verb tale, or of its Germanic base, with a -k- suffix forming verbs of repeated action;^[5] Etymonline compares hark beside hear and stalk beside steal.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who talks, a conversationalist: about 1400, in The Last Age of the Church.^[5] The 1989 edition of the OED dated the word about 1386,^[6] and Chaucer uses it once.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the start it often had an adjective describing the manner of talking.^[5] From 1553 it also meant someone fond of talking, a loquacious person,^[5][4] and proverbs set talking against doing: great talkers are little doers is found from 1597, in Shakespeare's Richard III.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as one who talks, a prattler, and a boaster, quoting Taylor's remark that the greatest talkers in peace had been the most cowardly in temptation.^[8] From 1890 a talker could also be a person giving a talk to an audience, a speaker.^[5] In the United States the word is recorded for a circus or carnival barker who draws customers into a sideshow,^[9] and in the navy for a sailor trained to pass orders to the crew by telephone or public-address system.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a person who talks; a conversationalist.^[5]
• 1553 – a talkative, loquacious person.^[5]
• 1597 – in proverbs contrasting talking with doing, great talkers are little doers.^[5]
• 1890 – a person giving a talk to an audience; a speaker.^[5]
• 1960 – in carnival use, a barker for a sideshow.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, or less often a thing, that talks, often with a word describing how: Her grandfather was a wonderful talker.^[5][2][10]
2. A person given to talking a great deal; a loquacious or garrulous person.^[10][5][1]
3. A person giving a talk to an audience; a speaker.^[5]
4. A sailor trained to pass orders to the crew of a naval vessel by telephone or public-address system.^[2]
5. (US, circus slang) A barker who persuades people to enter a sideshow.^[9]

Word family

• nontalker

Related words

• talk
• tale
• talkative

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
8. ^ 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 Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin