shark English · revision 7840

+ Shark, the fish, and shark, a swindler, are both of uncertain origin and may be different words; the second is perhaps from German Schurke, scoundrel, and some think it the source of the first.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ʃɑːk/ ''(UK)''; /ʃɑɹk/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

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+ {{homograph|1|fish}}

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+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=1569}}

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+ ==Etymology==

+ It is of uncertain origin.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(Collins 2023) Barnhart notes that the word was apparently brought by the sailors of John Hawkins' 1567 expedition to Africa and the West Indies, who exhibited a specimen in London in 1569.^(Barnhart 1988) An old theory traces it to a Mayan word xoc,^(Etymonline) and Etymonline suggests that it may be the swindler sense transferred to the fish.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The large predatory fish: 1569 in Barnhart and the OED;^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) by the 1560s in Etymonline, perhaps the mid-15th century if an isolated diary instance is the same word.^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Northern Europeans seem not to have known the larger sharks before voyages to the tropics.^(Etymonline) An earlier English name was tiburon, from Spanish tiburón (1520s),^(Etymonline) and Middle English had hound-fish for dogfish.^(Etymonline) A fresh-water shark, the pike, is jocular from 1799.^(OED 1989) Of a predatory person it is from 1713.^(OED 1989) The verb, to fish for sharks, is by 1860.^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1569 – the fish.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1713 – a predatory person.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1799 – fresh-water shark.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1860 – to fish for sharks.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Any of numerous mainly marine [[fish]] with a [[cartilage|alt=cartilaginous]] skeleton, rows of sharp teeth and five to seven gill slits on each side.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[sharklike]]

+ * [[sharkskin]]

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+ {{homograph|2|swindler}}

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+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|attested=1594}}

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+ ==Etymology==

+ It is of uncertain origin, possibly a borrowing of earlier German [[m|de|Schorck]], a variant of Schurke, scoundrel,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(Cresswell 2021) an agent noun of Middle High German schürgen, to poke, stir.^(Etymonline) Word Origins suggests that [[shirk]] may be from the same German word.^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ An artful swindler: sharker 1594, shark 1599, a sponger and petty swindler, in Ben Jonson's ''Every Man Out of His Humour''.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The verb, to live by one's wits, is from about 1600, and according to the OED is at least partly a variant of shirk;^(Etymonline) to obtain by sharking is from the 1610s.^(Etymonline) A rapacious or extortionate person is 18th-century,^(Hoad 1986) a customs officer from 1785,^(OED 1989) and in later uses, such as ''loan shark'' (1905), the sense has been influenced by the fish.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1594 – sharker.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1599 – a swindler.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1600 – to live by fraud.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1785 – a customs officer.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1905 – loan shark.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A person who cheats or preys on others, such as a [[usurer]] or swindler.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To obtain by fraud, or to live by trickery.^(AHD)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[loan shark]]

+ * [[card shark]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[shirk]]

+ * [[sharper]]

+ * [[sharp]]

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+ ==Usage notes==

+ In Dorset dialect shark meant to sneak off softly, compare shirk,^(Wright 1898) and in Gloucestershire a shark was a notch.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}