ker-

an unstressed syllable prefixed to onomatopoeic and other expressive words, usually forming adverbs or interjections: kerflop; kerplunk; ker-splosh.

Also, ca-, ka-.

Origin:
perhaps < Scots dialect car-, cur-, currie- (as in carfuffle, carwhuffle to disarrange, carnaptious irritable, curriebuction a confused gathering, etc.), based on car, earlier ker left (hand or side) < Scots Gaelic cearr wrong, awkward, left-handed (compare MIr cerr crooked, maimed); variants without r probably reflect forms in r-less dialects

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

ker-

1836, U.S. slang prefix, possibly from infl. of Ger. or Du. ge-, pp. prefix; or ultimately echoic of the sound of the fall of some heavy body.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Matching Quote

"In fact what America expects of its citizens and what the Catholic Church expects of the faithful are sometimes so different that they lead to an enormous ker-KLUNK between democracy and theology."

-Anna Quindlen

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