hocker n. a person who harangues, beseeches, or talks persuasively; a person who trades in information, gossip, or personal connections; someone who is (obnoxiously) ambitious. Editorial Note: Hocker is common and well-known to yeshiva students in New York City. Related etymologically to, but not derived from, hawk βto embarrass, annoy, or disconcert,β which, according to DARE, is used in Mid-Atlantic states such as North Carolina and Virginia as a synonym for hack, more commonly found in the American South and South Midlands. The noun variant of hack means “a state of embarrassment, confusion, or defeat.” The adjective hacked means “embarrassed, annoyed, cowed, flustered” and dates as far back as 1892. Itβs also, therefore, related to to hack off βto annoy.β A Jewish correspondent from Boston also reports using huck to mean “to nag,” probably just a pronunciation and spelling variant of the Yiddish hock. Etymological Note: < hock βto nag, criticizeβ (According to Leo Rosten, perhaps shortened from Hok mir nit kayn chainik βdonβt knock me a teapotβ = βdonβt harangue me; stop nagging, annoying, or pestering meβ) < Yiddish hock, hok, or hakn βto chop, strike, knockβ < German hack βto cut, chop, or strike (with a blow)β; High German hock βto hit, chopβ (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
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Love this site. Might I comment on your etymology?
“< Yid. hock or hok Γ’β¬Λto nag, criticize’”
1. I would transliterate the word “hak”, according to the accepted YIVO standards. The Yiddish infinitive would be “hakn.”
2. The Yid. word “hak[n]” does not mean “to nag, criticize.” It means “to chop.” “To nag, criticize” is Yinglish. Rosten’s book, though valuable, is a Yinglish dictionary, not a Yiddish one – though the phrase “hak mir nisht keyn tshaynik” is, of course, well-attested in Yiddish.
Your comments are good ones; I’ve changed the entry to reflect them.
This is great, it is also what I am always accused of, maybe it is natural but love to argue.