cocker

cocker · noun¹

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

cocker · noun²

1. Proto-Mongolic · derived from*kökexür“leather vessel for liquids”
2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*kukur“container, case”
3. Old English · inherited fromcocer“quiver, case”
4. Middle English · inherited fromcoker“a quiver, boot”
5. English todaycocker

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.

cocker · noun, verb³

1. Middle English · inherited fromcokeren“to pamper, coddle”
2. English todaycocker

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”).

Cocker · proper noun⁴

1. Proto-Brythonic · derived from*kukrā“the crooked one”
2. English todayCocker

* 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”).

Words from the same roots