Etymology

tusker

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Today it means: An animal, such as a bull elephant or a boar, with large tusks. Full definition →

English tusk ← Middle English tusk ← Old English tūx
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tusker · noun1

  1. Proto-Germanic*tunþskaz
  2. Proto-West Germanic*tunsk
  3. Old Englishtūsc
  4. Old Englishtūx
  5. Middle Englishtusk
  6. Englishtusk
  7. English todaytusker

From tusk + -er.

tusker · noun2

  1. Old Norse · derived fromtorfskeri
  2. English todaytusker

From Old Norse torfskeri, from torf (“turf”) + skera (“to cut”), whence also Scottish Gaelic tairsgeir, toirsgeir, treidhsgeir and later forms like toirsgian (assimilated to sgian (“knife”)). Known in print from the early 19th century, but doubtless much older.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.