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walker

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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