Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An obsolete form of ocher.
  • noun See oker.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Interest on money; usury; increase.
  • verb transitive To increase (in price); add to.
  • noun slang, Australia A boorish or uncultivated Australian.
  • adjective Pertaining to an ocker.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ocker, oker, from Old Norse ókr ("usury"), from Proto-Germanic *wōkraz (“progeny, earnings, profit”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weg- (“to add, increase”). More at oker.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ocker, pet form of the name Oscar; popularised in a series of television sketches where the word was used as a general nickname.

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Examples

  • When I was brought up in Queensland, the word 'ocker' was a pejorative term that was used for Asians normally Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.

    languagehat.com: TRAI(T). 2005

  • When I was brought up in Queensland, the word 'ocker' was a pejorative term that was used for Asians normally Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.

    languagehat.com: TRAI(T). 2005

  • The scholarly and comprehensive but under-used Australian National Dictionary AND; Oxford, 1988 Ockersford? gives three related senses for "ocker", with copious citation of sources.

    languagehat.com: TRAI(T). 2005

  • There is another meaning of the word 'ocker' which is 'true-blue and down-to-earth Australian', with rural or working class undertones.

    languagehat.com: TRAI(T). 2005

  • An unfortunate side-effect is that it created an image of Australia as a home of genteel period pieces - much preferable to many people as a representation of the country than the "ocker" comedies like

    DVD Times 2010

  • An unfortunate side-effect is that it created an image of Australia as a home of genteel period pieces - much preferable to many people as a representation of the country than the "ocker" comedies like

    DVD Times 2010

  • Robert Hood's quite ocker "Monstrous Bright Tomorrows" lives up nastily to its title but I wasn't 100% sold on the characterisation.

    Kittehs update editormum 2007

  • Fer chrissakes, please please PLEASE do not - under any circumstances - lay on the ocker affectation.

    Cheeseburger Gothic » JB’s travel tips. 2009

  • But it won him the love and affection of audiences here, and he's been called Australia's favourite ocker.

    BBC News - Home 2011

  • His career spanned more than 50 years, and he has been called Australia's favourite "ocker", because he often played an archetypal Australian bloke.

    BBC News - Home 2011

Comments

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  • Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition (1934), lists another sense for this word: "n. Usury; v. to lend, get, or increase, at usury."

    January 28, 2011