koker

Forms

koker m (plural kokers, diminutive kokertje n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch coker, inherited from Old Dutch cocare (“quiver”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kokur.^[2][1][3] The EWN reconstructs the Germanic form as *kukara-.^[2] The same word is Old Saxon kokar, Old High German chohhar and chohhâri (modern German Köcher), Middle Low German kōker, Old Frisian koker (modern West Frisian koker) and Old English cocer.^[2][4][5]

Its further origin is disputed: the EWN, following Pfeifer, thinks it was possibly borrowed from Hunnic *kukur (“vessel, quiver”), and takes Medieval Latin cucurus and coccura (“quiver”), a Byzantine Greek word of the same meaning and Albanian kukurë to come, probably through Germanic, from the same source.^[2] De Vries likewise traces the group to an East Turkic word, perhaps passed on by Hunnic.^[4] Franck–Van Wijk, Van Veen and Van der Sijs and De Vries & De Tollenaere instead derive the Germanic word from Medieval Latin cucurum, itself from Byzantine Greek, and the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal calls the relation to the Latin and Greek forms unclear.^[5][6][7][8] Finnish kukkaro (“purse, bag”) is probably a loan from Germanic.^[2]

Old French cuivre (also coivre), the source of the English word quiver, is taken by De Vries from Frankish *kukur and by Franck–Van Wijk from the Medieval Latin word.^[4][2][5] The ONW notes that the Old French forms point to an intermediate *kupur, seen in ⟨cupra⟩ of the Reichenau Glosses.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old Dutch cocare is recorded in the 10th century, in the Wachtendonck Psalms glosses, where it renders Latin pharetra “quiver”.^[3][2] The first Middle Dutch record, in a Limburg glossary of about 1240, glosses the same Latin word.^[9][7]

Semantic evolution

Middle Dutch used coker for a case to keep things in, and above all for a quiver: a Brabant text of about 1260 has Siegfried carry a quiver full of arrows of hard steel, a text of 1285 names a lendenniere cokere worn at the belt, and a Bruges account of 1293 lists 91 quivers.^[9][2] From the 16th century the word covers any more or less cylindrical case, then also long cases of angular section, such as cases for pens, ink, cigars, or the sleeves put round young trees in towns (1624).^[8]

From the case it passed to hollow tubes and shafts: a wooden casing in which a beam runs (1567), a socket for a stump of leg (1646), a watertight shaft in a ship's hold (1697), and in water engineering an underground pipe for draining or letting in water (1769) and the chamber of a lock.^[8][10] The quiver lives on in uit iemands koker komen, “to be someone's doing or idea”, often with arrows in mind (from 1574).^[8][6]

Dutch lent the word abroad: Russian took it as ко́кор (kókor) “cartridge case”, Indonesian koker means “shaft”, and in the Guianas it became Sranan Tongo kokro “culvert”, Lokono kokoro “culvert under a road” and Guyanese Creole koker;^[11][4][1] Caribbean English uses koker for a sluice gate in a drainage system.^[11][4][1] Danish and Norwegian kogger “quiver” and Swedish koger come from Dutch or Low German.^[11]

Timeline

• 901–1000 – Old Dutch cocare glosses Latin pharetra “quiver”.^[3][2][12]
• c. 1240 – Middle Dutch coker is recorded in a Limburg glossary.^[9][7]
• 1293 – A Bruges account lists 91 quivers.^[9]
• 1567 – Koker names a wooden casing in which a beam runs.^[8]
• 1574 – The phrase about arrows coming out of someone's quiver is recorded.^[8]
• 1624 – Kokers protect the trees planted in towns.^[8]
• 1769 – Koker is used for an underground drainage pipe in a dam.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long case or tube for keeping or protecting something.^[10][1][13]
2. A pipe or shaft through which something flows or moves.^[10][8]
3. The chamber of a lock in a canal.^[10][8]
4. (dated) A quiver for arrows.^[8][1]

Word family

• kokerjuffer
• kokerpaal
• kokerworm
• breikoker
• brillenkoker
• luchtkoker
• sigarenkoker
• stortkoker
• sigarettenkoker
• inktkoker
• pijlkoker

Related words

• German Köcher
• English quiver

Usage notes

Dat komt niet uit zijn koker means “that is not his own idea”; the koker here is the quiver.^[6][10] A rare koker “someone who cooks or boils”, from koken, is recorded from 1654; it also names a device for boiling, and in historical Suriname the enslaved worker who boiled down cane juice on a sugar plantation.^[8][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
3. ^ a b c d Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org
4. ^ a b c d e Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b c Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
6. ^ a b c Veen, P. A. F. van; Sijs, Nicoline van der (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd ed., Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Lexicografie
7. ^ a b c Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 203
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
9. ^ a b c d Pijnenburg, W. J. J., et al. (2001), Vroegmiddelnederlands woordenboek: woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling, Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie; gtb.ivdnt.org
10. ^ a b c d e Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
11. ^ a b c Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
12. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
13. ^ WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary), nl.wiktionary.org