Hooker

- 11 dictionary results

hook⋅er

1 [hoo

k-er]

–noun

1.	a person or thing that hooks.

2.	Slang. prostitute.

3.	Slang. a large drink of liquor.

4.	Slang. a concealed problem, flaw, or drawback; a catch.

5.	Rugby. a player who hooks the ball in the front line of scrummage.

6.	(initial capital letter) Offensive. an Amish Mennonite.

Origin:
1560–70; 1835–45, Americanism for def. 2; hook ¹ + -er ¹

hook⋅er

2 [hoo

k-er]

–noun Nautical.

1.	Slang. any old-fashioned or clumsy vessel.

2.	any fishing vessel working with hooks and lines rather than nets.

Origin:
1635–45; < D hoeker, equiv. to hoek hook ¹ + -er -er ¹

Hook⋅er

[hoo

k-er]

–noun

1.	Joseph, 1814–79, Union general in the U.S. Civil War.

2.	Richard, 1554?–1600, English author and clergyman.

3.	Thomas, 1586?–1647, English Puritan clergyman: one of the founders of the colony of Connecticut.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To Hooker

hook·er¹ (hŏŏk'ər)

A single-masted fishing smack used off the coast of Ireland.
An old worn-out or clumsy ship.

[Dutch hoeker, from Middle Dutch hoeckboot : hoec, fishhook; see keg- in Indo-European roots + boot, boat.]

hook·er² (hŏŏk'ər)

One that hooks.
Slang A prostitute.

Word History: In his Personal Memoirs Ulysses S. Grant described Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker as "a dangerous man ... not subordinate to his superiors." Hooker had his faults. He may indeed have been insubordinate; he was undoubtedly an erratic leader. But "Fighting Joe" Hooker is often accused of one thing he certainly did not do: he did not give his name to prostitutes. According to a popular story, the men under Hooker's command during the Civil War were a particularly wild bunch, and would spend much of their time in brothels when on leave. For this reason, as the story goes, prostitutes came to be known as hookers. However attractive this theory may be, it cannot be true. The word hooker with the sense "prostitute" is already recorded before the Civil War. As early as 1845 it is found in North Carolina, as reported in Norman Ellsworth Eliason's Tarheel Talk; an Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860, published in 1956. It also appears in the second edition of John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms, published in 1859, where it is defined as "a strumpet, a sailor's trull." Etymologically, it is most likely that hooker is simply "one who hooks." The term portrays a prostitute as a person who hooks, or snares, clients.

hook·er³ (hŏŏk'ər)

n. Slang
A drink of undiluted hard liquor: a hooker of whiskey.

[Probably from the hook-like form of the arm taken in raising a drink to the mouth.]

Hook·er (hŏŏk'ər)

American Union army officer who was defeated by Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville (1863).

Hooker, Richard 1554?-1600.
English writer and theologian. His Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594) was central to the formation of Anglican theology.

Hooker, Thomas 1586?-1647.
English-born American colonizer and cleric who founded Hartford, Connecticut (1636).

Hooker

Hook"er\, n. 1. One who, or that which, hooks.

2. (Naut.) (a) A Dutch vessel with two masts. (b) A fishing boat with one mast, used on the coast of Ireland. (c) A sailor's contemptuous term for any antiquated craft.

hooker

"prostitute," often traced to the disreputable morals of the Army of the Potomac (American Civil War) under the tenure of Gen. "Fighting Joe" Hooker (1863), and the word probably was popularized by this association at that time. But it is said to have been in use in North Carolina c.1845 ("If he comes by way of Norfolk he will find any number of pretty Hookers in the Brick row not far from French's hotel."). One theory traces it to Corlear's Hook, a disreputable section of New York City. Perhaps related to hooker "thief, pickpocket" (1567), but most likely an allusion to prostitutes hooking or snaring clients. Hook in the figurative sense of "that by which anyone is attracted or caught" is recorded from 1430; and hook (v.) in the figurative sense of "catch hold of and draw in" is attested from 1577; in reference to "fishing" for a husband or a wife, it was in common use from c.1800. All of which makes the modern sense seem a natural step. The family name Hooker (attested from c.975 C.E.) would mean "maker of hooks," or else refer to an agricultural laborer who used a hook (cf. O.E. weodhoc "weed-hook").

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