Cocker

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒkə/

Definitions

1. A person who breeds or trains fighting gamecocks ; a breed of dog originally developed for catching birds during hunts
2. One who raises or prepares fighting cocks for contests ; a small hunting dog known for its bird-flushing ability
3. An individual involved in the care and training of gamefowl ; a medium-sized dog breed used in hunting small game like birds

Etymology: The most striking thing about "cocker" is that its name for a dog breed comes from a bird-fighting sport. The word is built from "cock," the male bird, plus the agent suffix "-er," so a cocker was simply someone who handled gamecocks. Cocking, the hunting or fighting of gamecocks, was the activity that gave the trade its name, and the dog came later from the same world of field sport. A separate, older "cocker" existed long before any of this. In Middle English, "coker" meant a quiver or case for arrows, and it traces back through Old English "cocer" to a Proto-West Germanic word for a container. Some scholars trace that root to Hunnic and possibly to a Mongolic term for a leather vessel for liquids, though this remains uncertain. Some etymologists have also proposed a third source, the Middle English verb "cokeren," meaning to pamper or coddle, with links to Welsh and French words for indulging or fondling. Because the connection is uncertain, the origin of the sporting sense cannot be settled beyond the cock-plus-suffix explanation.

Synonyms: spaniel, dog, pet