▪ I. ‖ junker1
(ˈjʊŋkər)
[G., from earlier junkher, -herr(e, f. MHG. junc (G. jung) young + herre: see her n., and cf. younker.]
A young German noble; as a term of reproach, a narrow-minded, overbearing (younger) member of the aristocracy of Prussia, etc.; spec. a member of the reactionary party of the aristocracy whose aim it is to maintain the exclusive social and political privileges of their class. Also attrib. or transf.
| 1554 Admon. Cert. Trewe Pastor & Prophet Pref. A v b, And herewith let my Iunker papistes which now are in their ruff and tryumph..take their aduertisement. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 499 Luther said, the papist Junkers were in this respect more Lutheran than the Lutherans themselves. 1865 Spectator 11 Feb. 151 There is in Count Orloff's speech a trace of ‘junker’ feeling. 1891 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 462 Bismarck is by instinct a Junker. 1914 G. B. Shaw What I really wrote about War (1931) 25 The Junker is by no means peculiar to Prussia... Lord Cromer is a Junker. 1916 Ibid. 159 British Junker stupidity. 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 30 Junker, a superior staff-officer. 1920 E. Antonelli Bolshevist Russia i. ii. 32 A delegation of ‘Junkers’ (pupils of the Military Schools) appeared before Kerensky. Ibid. 35 Some Junker and regimental delegations..received no reply. |
Hence ˈjunkerdom, the body or world of junkers; the condition or character of a junker; ˈjunkerish a., characteristic of the junker party; ˈjunkerism, the policy or spirit of the junkers.
| 1870 Daily Tel. 4 Oct., It may be that some of the younger German officers are somewhat imperious..I myself have had disagreeable experience of Junkerdom more than once. 1890 New Review Apr. 290 These were his [Bismarck's] days of Junkerdom. 1878 Seeley Stein II. 522 These views of Münster were branded by Stein to myself as paltry and Junkerish. 1866 Daily Tel. 18 Jan. 5/3 Many professors and journalists, presumably most opposed to Junkerism. |
▪ II. junker2 Austral. and N.Z.
(ˈdʒʌŋkə(r))
= jinker2.
| 1888 P. W. Barlow Kaipara xiii. 94 He mounted the ‘junker’... The unhappy [horse] gave a feeble shake with one hind leg. 1924 Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 236 ‘What's a junker, Tom?’ ‘A low, four-wheeled log hauler, with a long pole.’ |
▪ III. junker3 U.S. slang.
(ˈdʒʌŋkə(r))
[f. junk n.2 1 e + -er1.]
A drug-addict; a drug-peddler.
| 1922 E. F. Murphy Black Candle ii. xvii. 276 One must..be known as a ‘junker’ or addict to make the purchase. 1930 Detective Fiction Weekly 15 Nov. 473/2 He got the poppy gum from the smugglers and turned it over to the chemists at a good profit, getting back half in cash and half in drugs, which his junkers peddled. 1930 C. R. Shaw Jack Roller xii. 161 Next to me in the hospital was Herbie, a junker, who was taking the cure. 1949 ‘J. Evans’ Halo in Brass (1951) iv. 29 No slim-waisted junker with a snapbrim hat and a deck of nose candy for sale to the right guy. |