hacker
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /hækə/
ipa: /hækəɹ/
rhymes: -ækə(ɹ)
Forms: form: hackers
form: hackering
form: hackered
form: hackered
Etymology: From hack (“(obsolete) to confuse or mangle (words) when speaking”) + -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs).
Senses: examples: text: The interrupting of the Miniſter by the Clark, and the vvhole congregation, vvhen he readeth the Pſalms, by taking every other verſe out of his mouth, vvith an hackering confuſed noiſe, eſpecially in countrey Churches, vvhere the people cannot read vvell.
ref: 1642, Lewes Hughes, “The Errors and Ungodliness of the Service Displaid and Laid Open, by Way of a Dialogue between a Countrey Gentleman, and a Minister of Gods Word”, in Certain Grievances, or The Popish Errors and Ungodlinesse of the Service-book; […], 5th edition, London: […] T. P., →OCLC, page 13:
text: Stammering, hackering—and so forth; it's shameful to relate! A soldier should be sound, brave, firm, decisive, true, honourable!
ref: 1810, Alexander Vassiliavitch Suvorof, “Appendix No. II. Field Marshal Court Alexander Vassiliavitch Suvorof’s ‘Discourse under the Trigger;’ […]”, in Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels in Various Countries of Europe Asia and Africa, 1st part (Russia Tartary and Turkey), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] University Press by R. Watts for T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies […], →OCLC, page 709:
text: [M]y noble patron has my habit of hackering so completely that he scarcely speaks three words without two stops; but when we get at his meaning it is better than any one's.
ref: 1814 June 18 (date written), Mary Russell Mitford, “To Mrs. Mitford, Bertram House”, in A. G. K. L’Estrange, editor, The Life of Mary Russell Mitford, […] Told by Herself in Letters to Her Friends. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1870, →OCLC, page 214:
text: Since the new marriage act, we, who belong to country magistrates, have gained a priority over the rest of the parish in matrimonial news. […] Many a blushing awkward pair hath our litle lame clerk (a sorry Cupid!) ushered in between dark and light to stammer and hacker, to bow and curtsy, to sign or make a mark, as it pleases Heaven.
ref: 1824, Mary Russell Mitford, “Hannah”, in Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery, volume I, London: G[eorge Byrom] and W. B. Whittaker, […], →OCLC, page 22:
text: [P]oor Adams became flustered, and hackered and stammered, as if in the way of imitating the Westminster Ciceros.
ref: 1825 March 9, William Cobbett, “To the Electors of Westminster. On the Speech of Sir Francis Burdett, of the 1st March 1825, when He Presented the Petition of the Catholics of Ireland.”, in William Cobbett, editor, Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register, volume 53, number 11, London: […] C[harles Robert] Clement, […], published 12 March 1825, →OCLC, column 643:
text: Certainly, some folks said that he was a born fool, and that he said so few words because he hackered and stammered so awfully. But that, belike, was only jealousy.
ref: 1891, J[ohn] C[hristopher] Atkinson, “How Little Jack Came to be Called the Wolf-queller”, in The Last of the Giant Killers: Or The Exploits of Sir Jack of Danby Dale, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 52:
text: He hackered an' stammered leyke an au'd ganthert chooakin wi bran.
ref: 1892, M[armaduke] C[harles] F[rederick] Morris, “Specimens of the Folk-talk”, in Yorkshire Folk-talk with Characteristics of Those who Speak It in the North and East Ridings, London: Henry Frowde, […]; York, Yorkshire: John Sampson, →OCLC, page 122:
text: "Ha," they hollowly hackered, / "You come, forsooth, / "By stealth to obliterate / Our graven worth, our chronicle, our date, / That our descendant may not gild the record / Of our past state,[…]"
ref: 1914, Thomas Hardy, “[Miscellaneous Pieces.] The Obliterate Tomb.”, in Satires of Circumstance: Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, page 179:
glosses: To speak with a spasmodic repetition of vocal sounds; to stammer, to stutter; also, to mumble and procrastinate in one's speech; to hem and haw.