walker

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈwɔː.kə/, US /ˈwɑː.kɚ/, /ˈwɔː.kɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is from Middle English walken + -er, an agent noun from the verb walk.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who fulls cloth, by walking on it: about 1300 in Etymonline, and as a surname from the early 13th century.^[2] The OED's first quotation, of a person who walks in some manner, is from 1362.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A traveller or wanderer is from the late 14th century,^[2] and sometimes a prowler, as in nightwalker (mid-15th century).^[2] One who goes on foot, a pedestrian, is from the 1570s, 1578 in the OED,^[2][4] and in slang a foot or leg from the 1610s.^[2] A competitor in walking races is from 1778,^[4] a person who exercises dogs from 1930,^[2][4] and a frame to help a person walk from 1941.^[2] In late 20th-century American slang a walker is a man who escorts women at fashionable social events.^[3][5]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a fuller of cloth.^[2]
• 1362 – one who walks.^[4]
• 1578 – a pedestrian.^[4]
• 1778 – a racing walker.^[4]
• 1930 – a dog walker.^[2][4]
• 1941 – a walking frame.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who walks, especially for exercise or in a race.
2. A frame used to support a person who has difficulty walking, or a baby learning to walk.
3. A shoe designed for comfortable walking.
4. (US, slang) A man who escorts a woman to social events.

Word family

• nightwalker
• ropewalker
• trackwalker
• wirewalker

Related words

• walk
• fuller

Usage notes

Walker! or Hookey Walker! was a slang retort of disbelief in London street speech of the early and mid-19th century, of unknown origin; it appears in Dickens's A Christmas Carol.^[2][3] The surname Walker, recorded from the early 13th century, comes from the fuller's trade.^[2]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c 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 h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins