Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “hooker” come from?

Hooker derives from English hook with the agentive suffix -er, tracing back through Old French -er, Latin -āre, and ultimately Proto-Italic -os, which formed agent nouns from verb stems.

hooker (English): One who, or that which, hooks; A small fishing...

Definitions

  1. One who, or that which, hooks; A small fishing...

Ancestry of “hooker”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishhookA rod bent into a curved shape, typically with...
2Swedishhöka hawk; a hawk; proponent of aggressive politics
3Old Swedishhøkerhawk
4Middle Low Germanhȫkerpeddler
5Old High Germanhuchan—
6Proto-Germanic*hūkan-—
7Proto-Germanic*hūkkan-—
8Proto-Germanic*huk(k)ōn-—
9Proto-Indo-European*kuk-néh₂—
10Proto-Indo-Europeanḱewk-flare up, glow; white; to glow, burn, lighten

Words derived from “hooker”

  • hookerish
Every word from Proto-Indo-European ḱewk- →