hooker

See also: Hooker

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhʊk.ə(ɹ)/
• IPA^(key): /ˈhʊk.ɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊkə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

• hook (“(verb)”) +‎ -er

Noun

hooker (plural hookers)

1. One who, or that which, hooks.
2. A small fishing boat.
3. (nautical, slang, derogatory) Any antiquated craft.
   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands, Part III, Chapter Two,^[1]

     […] the poor Flash is gone, and there is an end of it. Poor old hooker. Hey, Almayer? You made a voyage or two with me. Wasn’t she a sweet craft?

   • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker‎^[2], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2009:

     … for there was scarce one of us that thought the old hooker would weather so long and hard a blow. We were mighty fortunate to come through it so handily.

4. (rugby) A player who hooks the ball out of the scrum with his foot.
   • Template:quote-journalen
5. A crocheter.
6. (archaic, thieves' cant) A thief who uses a pole with a hook on the end to steal goods.
   • Template:quote-booken
   • 1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood‎^[3], volume 2, Oath of the Canting Crew, page 339:

     Suffer none, from far or near, / With their rights to interfere; / No strange Abram, Ruffler crack— / Hooker of another pack—

Synonyms

• (thief): angler, nuthook

Related terms

• Hooker

Translations

rugby player

• Afrikaans: hakker
• Bulgarian: захващач m (zahvaštač)
• Catalan: talonador (ca) m
• Czech: mlynář (cs) m
• French: talonneur (fr) m, talonneuse (fr) f
• German: Hakler (de) m
• Irish: caiteoir m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: tallonatore m
• Maori: kaitīkape, kaikape
• Polish: młynarz (pl) m
• Romanian: taloner (ro)
• Spanish: (Latin America) hooker m or f, (Spain) talonador m, talonadora f
• Welsh: bachwr m

Etymology 2

Unknown; The "prostitute" sense is the subject of a folk etymology connecting it to US Civil War general General Hooker, but the earliest known use dates to 1835. Less implausibly, it has also been connected to coastal features called hook (“A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey, Red Hook in New York”) in the ports of New York and Baltimore. Careful learned inference is not conclusive. See this essay, pp 105ff.

Noun

hooker (plural hookers)

1. (US, slang) A prostitute. [from 1845]
2. (slang, dated, 1920s to 1940s) An imprecise measure of alcoholic drink; a "slug" (of gin), or an overlarge gulp.
   • 1993, Herman Wouk, The Hope (novel), page 675:

     Emily had cut short these 3 A.M. glooms with a hooker of bourbon.

Synonyms

• (prostitute): See also Thesaurus:prostitute

Translations

prostitute

• Arabic: عَاهِرَة f (ʕāhira), عَاهِرَات f pl (ʕāhirāt)
• Armenian: քած (hy) (kʻac), բոզ (hy) (boz)
• Bulgarian: курва f (kurva), проститутка (bg) f (prostitutka)
• Catalan: prostituta (ca)
• Czech: kurva (cs) f
• Danish: luder (da) c, prostitueret (da) c
• Finnish: huora (fi), prostituoitu (fi)
• French: putain (fr) f, pute (fr) f
• German: Nutte (de) f, Hure (de) f, Dirne (de) f
• Greek: πόρνη (el) f (pórni)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: puttana (it) f, battona (it) f, baldracca (it) f, squillo (it) f, peripatetica (it) f, sgualdrina (it) f
• Navajo: kiyąąh sizíní
• Polish: kurwa (pl) f, dziwka (pl)
• Portuguese: puta (pt) f, prostituta (pt) f, rameira (pt) f
• Russian: ку́рва (ru) f (kúrva), проститу́тка (ru) f (prostitútka), шлю́ха (ru) f (šljúxa)
• Scottish Gaelic: siùrsach f, strìopach (gd) f, leodag f
• Slovak: kurva f, cundra (sk) f
• Spanish: puta (es) f
• Swedish: hora (sv), luder (sv)

References

• Language Hat
• Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors (1889–1890) “hooker”, in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant […], volumes I (A–K), Edinburgh: […] The Ballantyne Press, →OCLC, page 39.
• John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1893) “hooker”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume III, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, pages 334–335.

Anagrams

• rehook