Harker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old-fashioned term for someone who listens attentively ; a surname borne by Jonathan Harker, the solicitor who travels to Transylvania in Bram Stoker's novel
2. Archaic word for a person who pays close attention to sounds ; the family name of Jonathan Harker, the young English lawyer in Stoker's Gothic classic Dracula
3. A rare, old-fashioned name for an attentive listener ; the surname of the character Jonathan Harker, whose journal recounts his ordeal in Dracula

Etymology: The word is built from "hark," which started out as a command. "Hark!" came from the older verb "hearken," meaning "to listen," and speakers shortened it to a bare imperative. Only later did "hark" become an ordinary verb, so a listener could be said to "hark" in the way someone might "walk" or "wait." "Harker" adds the agent suffix "-er" to that verb, so it names someone who hearkens. Its sense stayed close to the original idea of attentive listening, and it is now a rare, literary word. "Hearken" and "hark" are both thought to be related to "hear," though the exact details of their ancestry are less certain.