Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A young man.
  • noun A child.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A young man of condition; a young gentleman or knight.
  • noun A young person; a lad; a youngster.
  • noun A novice; a simpleton; a dupe.
  • noun Same as junker.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Obs. or Colloq. A young person; a stripling; a yonker.

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

  • noun a young man; a lad, youngster
  • noun obsolete a young gentleman or knight
  • noun obsolete a novice; a simpleton; a dupe
  • noun junker

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a young person (especially a young man or boy)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete Dutch jonchere, young nobleman, from Middle Dutch : jonc, young; see yeu- in Indo-European roots + here, lord.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle Dutch joncker (Dutch jonker, jonkheer), a compound equivalent to jong ("young") + here ("lord"). Compare junker.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word younker.

Examples

  • Moreover, I described to my company the tent and all the riches and rarities therein and said to them, “Know ye that this youth would not have cut himself off from society and have taken up his abode alone in this place, were he not a man of great prowess: so I propose that whoso slayeth the younker shall take his sister.”

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Let me sell you the fulltroth of Burrus when he wore a younker.

    Finnegans Wake 2006

  • Wolfgang and Rudolf especially held out their hands to the younker, and besought the honor of his friendship.

    Burlesques 2006

  • Wolfgang and Rudolf especially held out their hands to the younker, and besought the honor of his friendship.

    A Legend of the Rhine 2006

  • What, will you make a younker of me? shall I not take mine case in mine inn but I shall have my pocket picked?

    The first part of King Henry the Fourth 2004

  • “Well, younker, take care you have not worse dreams than that some night,” he said, enigmatically, and wagged his head with a chuckle.

    The Room in the Dragon Volant 2003

  • They expressed their wonder that he had not informed them of this relationship before; he replied that he did not wish the younker to be favoured; he knew his nephew would pass a good examination, and he had not been deceived.

    The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson Southey, Robert, 1774-1843 1993

  • You've shown yourself pretty tough and resourceful for a younker.

    Ensign Flandry Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1966

  • I can remember when I was a younker we used to go fishing for cod off the Dogger Bank, which is a great ridge of hills at the bottom of the sea, not far from the coast of Holland.

    Little Folks (Septemeber 1884) A Magazine for the Young Various

  • In the second act David the apprentice tells Magdalene, Eva's nurse, that the new singer did not succeed, at which she is honestly grieved, preferring the gallant younker for her mistress, to the old and ridiculous clerk.

    The Standard Operaglass Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas Charles Annesley

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The broker, who saw my inclination, told me I had a very correct taste. By all that is sacred! exclaimed he, it is plain you are no younker.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 1 ch. 15

    September 12, 2008

  • As the shades of ev'ning close,

    Beck'ning thee to long repose;

    As life itself becomes disease,

    Seek the chimney-nook of ease;

    There ruminate with sober thought,

    On all thou'st seen, and heard, and wrought,

    And teach the sportive younkers round,

    Saws of experience, sage and sound:

    Say, man's true, genuine estimate,

    The grand criterion of his fate,

    Is not,-Arth thou high or low?

    Did thy fortune ebb or flow?

    - Robert Burns, 'Written In Friars Carse Hermitage'.

    January 28, 2009

  • The boys at the bar slump and hunker

    And lie as they get ever drunker.

    Truth little avails

    To tame their tall tales

    Of conquests each made as a younker.

    October 26, 2017