hawker

See also: Hawker

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Probably borrowed from Middle Low German hoker.

Noun

hawker (plural hawkers)

  1. A peddler, a huckster, a person who sells easily transportable goods.
    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
      The other [witness] was one Sim Doolittle, the fish hawker from Allerfoot, jogging home in his fish cart from Gledsmuir fair.
    • 2011 May 1, Azhar Ghani, “A Recipe for Success: How Singapore Hawker Centres Came to Be”, in IPS Update‎, Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies:
      First-generation hawkers were mostly immigrants from China, and to a smaller extent from India and the Malay Archipelago. A 1950 Hawkers Inquiry Commission report stated that 84 per cent of the hawkers in Singapore were Chinese.
  2. Any dragonfly of the family Aeshnidae; a darner.
Usage notes
  • In the 19th century, a hawker referred specifically to a itinerant merchant, while a peddler/pedlar referred to a stationary merchant.[1] This distinction is no longer upheld.
Derived terms
Derived terms
Translations
peddler — see peddler

Further reading

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle English hawkere, from Old English hafocere, hafecere; by surface analysis, hawk +‎ -er.

Noun

hawker (plural hawkers)

  1. Someone who breeds and trains hawks and other falcons; a falconer.[2]
Translations
falconer — see falconer

References
  1. James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Hawker, sb.1”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 131, column 3.
  2. Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
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