trickster

Etymology

It is formed from English trick + -ster,^[2][3][4] from the noun or the verb, as the OED and the Shorter Oxford allow.^[5][6] The base is from Old French trique (“a deceit, treachery, cheating”), in its northern form, from trikier (“to deceive, to cheat”), a variant of trichier, of uncertain origin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who practises trickery, a rogue or cheat: 1711, in the Medley, no. 39.^[5][2][3] Dictionary.com gives the range 1705–15.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Before trickster English had tricker, a cheat or a prankster, from 1550 in the OED^[5] and the 1560s in Etymonline.^[2] The OED's entry, not revised since 1914, has only the sense of a cheat;^[5] the Shorter Oxford also records a noun trickstering, cheating, from the early 19th century.^[6] Later dictionaries add the person who plays tricks, a stage magician among them, and a mischievous figure in myth and folklore, often an animal, who wins by cunning and sly deception.^[3][7] In dialect a trickster was a deceiver in North Yorkshire,^[8] and in Cornwall an adept, especially at dancing.^[8]

Timeline

• 1711 – a cheat, a rogue.^[5][2][3]
• early 19th century – trickstering, cheating.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who swindles others; a confidence man.^[3][7][9]
2. A person who plays tricks; a prankster.^[9][7]
3. A person skilled in tricks and illusion, such as a stage magician.^[3]
4. A mischievous, roguish figure in myth and folklore, often an animal, who outwits others by cunning.^[3][7]
5. (dialect, Cornwall) An adept, especially at dancing.^[8]

Word family

• trickstering

Related words

• trick
• tricker
• trickery
• tricky
• -ster

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c 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)
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins