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Cocker

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cocker¹

  • /ˈkɒkə/ UK
  • /ˈkɑkəɹ/ US

Rhymes with -ɒkə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From cock (“a male bird, especially a rooster”) and its derivative cocking (“the hunting of gamecocks”), + -er (occupational suffix) or + -er (agent noun suffix).

noun cockers

  1. One who breeds gamecocks or engages in the sport of cockfighting.
  2. dated One who hunts woodcocks.
  3. colloquial A cocker spaniel, either of two breeds of dogs originally bred for hunting woodcocks.
  4. A device that aids in cocking a crossbow. You have your choice of two stock-mounted cocking aids: the Acudraw 50, an integral rope cocker, or the Acudraw crank-operated device.

cocker²

  • /ˈkɒkə/ UK
  • /ˈkɑkəɹ/ US

Rhymes with -ɒkə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle English coker (“a quiver, boot”) from Old English cocer (“quiver, case”) from Proto-West Germanic *kukur (“container, case”), said to be from Hunnic, possibly from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür (“leather vessel for liquids”). More at quiver.

noun cockers

  1. A rustic high shoe; half-boot.
  2. obsolete A quiver.

cocker³

  • /ˈkɒkə/ UK
  • /ˈkɑkəɹ/ US

Rhymes with -ɒkə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English cokeren (“to pamper, coddle”); compare Welsh cocru (“to indulge, fondle”), French coqueliner (“to dandle, to imitate the crow of a cock, to run after the girls”), and English cockle and cock (“rooster; to spoil”).

noun cockers

  1. UK, informal Friend, mate. I been to see 'im. Not pretty. Ward sister tell me 'e'll be alright but not for a while yet. Concussion. Bloody 'ell! Lucky 'e wasn't killed, lump of lead like that. Lucky for you too, cocker...

verb cockers · cockering · cockered

  1. To make a nestle-cock of; to indulge or pamper (particularly of children). […] shall a beardless boy, A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields […]?

Cocker⁴

Where it comes from

* As an English surname, from the verb cock (“to fight, wrangle”), itself from the bird. The river in Lancashire is also from the bird.

* Also as an English surname, from the noun cock (sense 3) (“heap of hay”).

* As a German surname, Americanized from Kocher.

* The river in Cumbria is of Brythonic origin, from Proto-Brythonic *kukrā (“the crooked one”).

proper noun Cockers

  1. countable, uncountable A surname.
  2. countable, uncountable A river in Cumbria, England, which joins the Derwent at Cockermouth.
  3. countable, uncountable A short river in Lancashire, England, which flows into the Lune estuary.

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