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hacker

noun
/hækə/UK/hækəɹ/US

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).

  1. inherited from *keg-✻
  2. inherited from *hakkōną✻ — “to chop, hack”
  3. inherited from *hakkōn✻ — “to chop, hack”
  4. inherited from *haccian✻ — “to hack”
  5. inherited from hackere

Definitions

  1. Someone who hacks.

    • A hacker hacked into his computer account yesterday.
    • 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.
    • Typically, one hacker will annoy another; the offended party replies by launching a denial-of-service attack against the offender.

  2. Something that hacks

    Something that hacks; a device or tool for hacking; specifically, an axe used for cutting tree branches or wood.

  3. One who operates a taxicab

    One who operates a taxicab; a cabdriver.

    • Start runnin' for a streetcar and they open up with machine guns and bump two pedestrians, a hacker asleep in his cab, and an old scrubwoman on the second floor workin' a mop. And they miss the guy they're after.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. To speak with a spasmodic repetition of vocal sounds

      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.

      • Stammering, hackering—and so forth; it's shameful to relate! A soldier should be sound, brave, firm, decisive, true, honourable!
      • [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.

    2. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

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

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for hacker. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA