younker

See also: Younker

English

Alternative forms

• yonker (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Dutch joncker (Dutch jonker, jonkheer), a compound equivalent to jong (“young”) +‎ here (“lord”). Compare junker.

Noun

younker (plural younkers)

1. a young man; a lad, youngster
2. (obsolete) a young gentleman or knight
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     So foorth they went, and both together giusted;
     But that same younker soone was overthrowne

3. (obsolete) a novice; a simpleton; a dupe
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     Trimmed like a younker prancing to his love!

4. junker

References

• “younker”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “younker”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

• Yukoner