hacker
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /hækə/
ipa: /hækəɹ/
rhymes: -ækə(ɹ)
Forms: form: hackers
Etymology: From Late Middle English hackere, hakker, hakkere (“one who cuts wood, woodchopper, woodcutter; (rare) tool for cutting wood”), from hakken, hacke (“to cut (something) with a chopping action, hack; to make a chopping action”) + -er(e) (suffix forming agent nouns). Hakken is derived from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn (“to chop, hack”), from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop, hack”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; a handle; a hook; a peg”). The English word may be analysed as hack (“to chop or cut down in a rough manner”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).
Senses: examples: text: A hacker hacked into his computer account yesterday.
text: I'm a computer crook, the Willie Sutton of hackers. I break into computer systems for fun—and profit. To me, the Apple is the forbidden fruit.
ref: 1986 April, Curtis Slepian, “The April Papers”, in R. Wayne Schmittberger, editor, Games, volume 10, number 4 (number 74 overall), New York, N.Y.: Playboy Enterprises, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:
text: Typically, one hacker will annoy another; the offended party replies by launching a denial-of-service attack against the offender.
ref: 2007, “Category 5—Illustrative Crosscutting Problem-focused Research Areas”, in Seymour E. Goodman, Herbert S. Lin, editors, Toward a Safer and More Secure Cyberspace, Washington, D.C.: Committee on Improving Cybersecurity Research in the United States, National Research Council, →ISBN, part II (An Illustrative Research Agenda), page 205:
text: Cris “Space Rogue” Thomas, another ex-L0pht member who testified alongside Zatko that day, said that L0pht would do everything it could to get companies to collaboratively fix software issues the hacker group found.
ref: 2022 October 17, Sean Lyngaas and Clare Duffy, “How a 51-year-old celebrity hacker upended one of the world’s most influential social networks”, in CNN Business:
text: In 2022, hackers leaked unreleased footage from its next iteration of GTA.
ref: 2023 December 4, Ramishah Maruf, “GTA 6 leak: ‘Grand Theft Auto’ trailer reveals game’s release date”, in CNN:
hyponyms: aimbotter
glosses: Someone who hacks.
examples: text: [O]ne good hacker, being a luſty labourer, vvill at good eaſe hacke or cut more then halfe an Acre of ground in a day; […]
ref: 1625, Gervase Markham, “Of the Ordering, Tilling, and Dressing of All Sorts of Plaine Barren Clayes, whether They be Simple or Compounded”, in Markhams Farwell to Husbandry or, The Inriching of All Sorts of Barren and Sterile Grounds in Our Kingdome, […], revised edition, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Roger Iackson, […], →OCLC, page 5:
text: In January or February the "hacker," with his keen-bladed ax, begins the round which ends the season. […] His task is to cut the "boxes" in which the thick gum of the wounded tree will collect. A box is a wide incision about six inches deep, a wedge shaped cut in the tree, […] About a quart of sap is taken from each box by means of the trowel-shaped scoop used by the dipper, and then the hacker comes along and starts the flow afresh by wounding the tree again.
ref: 1895 January 18, Chicago Record, quotee, “Making turpentine: An extensive industry in certain southern states”, in Edward D. Baldwin, editor, The Newton Graphic, volume XXIII, number 14, Newton, Mass.: Edward D. Baldwin, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 5, column 4:
hyponyms: aimbotter
glosses: Someone who hacks.
One who cuts with heavy or rough blows.
synonyms: cutter
slasher
examples: text: a tennis hacker
text: And then Billy was a middle-aged optometrist again, playing hacker’s golf this time—on a blazing summer Sunday morning.
ref: 1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 4, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 79:
text: Everybody likes to second‐guess computers, including who seed the pros. Nothing could have better exposed the vulnerability of the computer seeding than the spectacle of clay‐court experts looking like weekend hackers on grass.
ref: 1979 July 2, “Reflection on the Seedings Fills Pause at Wimbledon”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 27 Feb 2024:
hyponyms: aimbotter
glosses: Someone who hacks.
One who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity, especially (sports, originally and chiefly golf), a sport such as golf or tennis.
examples: text: The Electrical Engineering Department, J. McKenzie in particular, for allowing me to use the PDP-1 computer to do the extensive computations, draw graphs, and even type this thesis. In this connection Charles Landau did some of the programming, Luella Thompson did most of the typing, and W. B. Ackermann helped when the machine would not cooperate. Many other computer hackers also willingly offered advice.
ref: 1968 September, Rory [Jack] Thompson; Louis N[orberg] Howard, thesis supervisor, “Acknowledgments”, in Instabilities of Some Time-dependent Flows (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Sep 2015, page 107:
text: A hacker starts with nothing but a dream and a floppy disk and presently finds himself in a business that's doubled and trebled. Three "diskzines" – magazines on floppy disks – started cheaply by entrepreneurs who placed ads in obscure computer journals […]
ref: 1984, Venture: For Entrepreneurial Business Owners and Investors, volume 6, part 1, New York, N.Y.: Venture Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 142:
text: While most hackers are people who simply love playing with computers and who break security measures in a network only for fun or to point out flaws, there is a malicious subset of hackers known as "crackers," who intrude on computer networks to cause damage, commit fraud, or steal data.
ref: 1995 May 22, Joe Chidley, “Cracking the Net”, in Maclean’s, volume 108, Toronto, Ont.: Maclean-Hunter Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 54–56; quoted in “Bibliography”, in Suzanne Elizabeth Kender, editor, Crime in America (The Reference Shelf; volume 68, number 5), New York, N.Y.: H[alsey] W[illiam] Wilson Company, 1996, →ISBN, page 197:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
hyponyms: aimbotter
glosses: Someone who hacks.
One who is expert at programming and solving problems with a computer.
examples: text: food hacker
text: growth hacker
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
hyponyms: aimbotter
glosses: Someone who hacks.
One who is expert at programming and solving problems with a computer.
One who applies a novel method, shortcut, skill, or trick to something to increase ease, efficiency, or productivity.
examples: text: a phone hacker
topics: communications
electrical-engineering
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
telecommunications
hyponyms: aimbotter
glosses: Someone who hacks.
One who uses a computer to gain unauthorized access to data stored in, or to carry out malicious attacks on, computer networks or computer systems.
synonyms: word: black hat
word: cracker
english: outside US
translation: outside US
qualifier: computer security
hyponyms: aimbotter
glosses: Someone who hacks.
Synonym of hackster (“a violent bully or ruffian; also, an assassin, a murderer”).
synonyms: word: hackster
extra: a violent bully or ruffian; also, an assassin, a murderer
examples: text: Thomas Limbrick, who was only nine years of age, said he lived with his mother when Deborah was beat: that his mother throwed her down all along with her hands; and then against a wall, and kicked her in the belly: that afterwards she picked her up, and beat her with the hacker on the side of the head; wiped the blood off with a dish-clout, and took her up to bed after she was dead.
ref: 1825, Andrew Knapp, William Baldwin, “Hannah Limbrick, Executed for Murder”, in The Newgate Calendar; […], volume III, London: J. Robins and Co., […], →OCLC, page 231, column 1:
text: When the dipping is thus over, the next work is to "chip" or scarify the tree immediately over the box, […] This is done by an instrument usually called a "hacker," sometimes "shave." Its form is somewhat like a "round shave," narrowing at the cutting place to the diameter of an inch, with a shank, to be fixed securely into a strong, heavy handle of about two feet in length, while the faces of the trees are low, but the handle is made longer as years advance the faces higher.
ref: 1846 July, John Macleod, “The Tar and Turpentine Business of North Carolina”, in John S. Skinner, editor, The Monthly Journal of Agriculture, […], volume II, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Greeley & McElrath, […], published 1847, →OCLC, page 15:
text: George C. Howard, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. / grindstone hacker. / Report.—Commended for the contrivance of an instrument, called a "hacker," that is used in trimming grindstones. This hacker turns with the stone, and is drawn across in a slide rest, and fulfills its important function satisfactorily.
ref: 1877, “Reports on Awards. Group XXI. [Machine Tools,—Wood, Metal, and Stone.]”, in Francis A[masa] Walker, editor, United States Centennial Commission. International Exhibition, 1876. Reports and Awards. Group XXI, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., →OCLC, paragraph 23, page 13:
glosses: Something that hacks; a device or tool for hacking; specifically, an axe used for cutting tree branches or wood.
examples: text: The upper half of each swede-turnip had been eaten off by the live-stock, and it was the business of the two women to grab up the lower or earthy half of the root with a hooked fork called a hacker, that it might be eaten also.
ref: 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XLIII, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume III, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the fifth (The Woman Pays), page 44:
text: Hack. […] To loosen the earth round potatoes, preparatory to earthing them up. This is done with a ‘tater-hacker,’ an old three-grained garden-fork, which by bending down the tines or ‘grains’ at right angles to the handle has been converted into something resembling a rake, but used as a hoe.
ref: 1893, George Edward Dartnell, Edward Hungerford Goddard, “Hack”, in A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Wiltshire, London: […] [F]or the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, […], →OCLC, page 72:
glosses: Something that hacks; a device or tool for hacking; specifically, an axe used for cutting tree branches or wood.
A fork-shaped tool used to harvest root vegetables.
Derived terms: antihacker
anti-hacker
biohacker
bodyhacker
civic hacker
cyberhacker
growth hacker
hackerazzi
hackerdom
hackerish
hackerism
hackerproof
hackerspace
hax0r
kernel hacker
lifehacker
nonhacker
nuthacker
pedestrian hacker
wallhacker
Related terms: english: computer security
translation: computer security
word: hacktivist