▪ I. dicker, n.1
(ˈdɪkə(r))
Forms: α. 4–5 dyker, 5–6 dycker, 6 deker, diker, -ar, dickar, dikkar, 7 dicar, 6– dicker. β. 6– dacre, daker, (6 daiker, dakir, 8 dakker).
[The form dicker, ME. dyker, etc., with the latinized forms dicora, dikera, dicra, point to an OE. *dicor, corresponding to MLG. dêker, MHG. decher, techer, mod.G. decher, LG. diekr (Westphal.), dæ̂kr (Pomerania), Icel. dekr, Da. deger, Sw. däcker; all evidently from a WGer. *decura, *decora, ad. L. decuria, a company or parcel of ten: cf. OE. sicor for L. securis. This WGer. form must be the source of the med.L. decora, decara, dicara, dacora (Du Cange), and of the OF. dacre, dakere, and corresp. med.L. dacra, dacrum, whence the Sc. and northern forms in β.
The word has been used from ancient times in the reckoning of skins or hides; a letter of the Roman Emperor Valerian (a.d. 253–260) preserved by Trebellius Pollio, directs Zozimion, procurator of Syria, to furnish to Claudius, among other supplies, ‘pellium tentoriarum decurias triginta’, i.e. 30 dickers of skins for tents. Kluge points out that the early adoption of the Latin word by the Germans is explained by the tribute of skins which the latter had to pay to the Romans (Tacitus Ann. iv. 72), as well as by the fact that skins formed a leading item in the frontier trade between the Romans and the northern barbarians, as they have in the traffic between white men and the Indians in North America in modern times (see dicker v.).]
The number of ten; half a score; being the customary unit of exchange in dealing in certain articles, esp. hides or skins; hence a package or lot of (ten) hides.
Its use in the skin trade appears to be the only one in continental languages; in English it has been extended to some other goods; the dicker (dicra or dacra) of iron in Domesday is generally held to have been ten rods, each sufficient to make two horse-shoes.
| α [1086 Domesday I. lf. 162 a, T.R.E. reddebat civitas de Glowecestre{ddd}xxxvi. d icras ferri. 1275 Placita in Curiis Magnat. Angliæ, Per iij diker' de coriis bovinis.] 1266–1307 Assisa de Pond. et Mensur. (Stat. Realm I. 205), Item Last Coriorum ex xx Dykeres, et quodlibet Dacre constat ex x coreiis. Item Dacre Cirotecarum ex x paribus. ¶Dacre vero ferrorum equorum [viginti] ferris. Transl. ex Lib. Horw. Lond. lf. 123 A Last of Leather doth consist of Twenty Diker, and every Diker consisteth of Ten Skins. And a Diker of Gloves consisteth of Ten Pair of Gloves. Item a Diker of Horse-shoes doth consist of [Ten v.r. twenty] Shoes. 1428 Will of Tanner (Somerset Ho.), j dyker de Rigges et neckes. 1467 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 384 Payinge for the custome of euery dyker j d. 1526 Tolls in Dillon Calais & Pole (1892) 81 A dycker of hydes tanned, ten hydes a dyker. 1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 14 §1 Two persons..nombre all suche lether by the hide, accomptinge ten hides to the deker. 1553–54 Trinity Coll. Accts. in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 610 It' to John Barbour for a dikkar of knives. 1579 in Wadley Bristol Wills (1886) 227 Fower diker of Rawe leather. 1679 Blount Anc. Tenures 33 A Dicar of Iron contained ten Barrs. 1691 Lond. Gaz. No. 2661/4 Also 16 Dickers of Butts in the Fatts near Tanned. 1799 S. Freeman Town Off. 146 The sealer of leather's fee shall be 6d. per dicker. 1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 51 Bracelets, or necklaces, of Glass. The Gross to contain 12 Bundles or Dickers, and each Bundle or Dicker being 10 Necklaces. 1835 P. Kelly Universal Cambist II. Index, Dicker, or dacre of leather, 10 hides; of necklaces, 10 bundles, each bundle ten necklaces. |
| β [1286 in Rogers Agric. & Prices II. 458/3 (Iron & Steel). c 1300 Fleta ii. xii. §4 (Jam.) Item lastus coriorum consistit ex decim dakris, & quodlibet dacrum ex decim coriis..Dacrum vero ferrorum equorum ex viginti ferris.] 1531 Aberdeen Burgh Rec. xiii. 248 The dakir of hidis. 1548 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) 130, ij daker off lether off daker wayre iij{supl}. vjs. viij{supd}. 1588 Will of Willison (Somerset Ho.), Dacre of leather. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. Stat. of Gild 147 In halfe ane daker of hydes. 1732 in Cramond Ann. Banff (1891) I. 206 For each dakker of leather freemen shall pay 3s. 4d. 1835 Dacre [see α.] |
† b. transf. A considerable number; a ‘lot’, a ‘heap’. Obs.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia iii. (1622) 393 Behold, said Pas, a whole dicker of wit. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 2 Such a huge dicker of Dickes in a heape altogether. 1602 Narcissus (1893) 686 On my love kisses I heape a dicker. 1641 R. Brathwait Engl. Intelligencer i, Newes, Althea, I have a whole dicker of newes for thee. 1676 Marvell Mr. Smirke 33 But if the Dean foresee that 'tis a very vendible Book, he..sends up for a whole Dicker of 'em to retaile. |
▪ II. dicker, n.2 U.S.
(ˈdɪkə(r))
[f. dicker v.]
The action or practice of dickering; barter; petty bargaining. Also, a deal, bargain; articles or commodities as a medium of exchange or payment.
| 1823 J. F. Cooper Pioneer xiv. (1869) 61/1 You have sold your betterments. Was it cash or dicker? 1831 Boston Evening Transcript 22 Dec. 1/1 His ‘dicker’ was begun, And by aid of solemn face, He closed a bargain soon. 1833 J. Neal Down-Easters I. v. 81 A dicker's a dicker I allays concate, where people's upon honor, but not where they aint. 1856 Whittier Panorama 270 Selfish thrift and party held the scales For peddling dicker, not for honest sales. 1880 Harper's Mag. May 907/1 An old watch and shot-gun..that he had taken as ‘dicker’ on accounts. 1888 N.Y. Weekly Times 28 Mar. (Farmer Amer.), Considering the advisability of making a dicker with his old political opponents. 1940 Wodehouse Eggs, Beans & Crumpets 57 It was his intention to..make a dicker with it [sc. a dog] by means of the slab [of cheese] which he had just purchased. |
▪ III. dicker, v. U.S.
[? f. dicker n.1
Quotation 1848 refers to the barter traffic on the Indian frontier in N. America. As skins have always formed a chief item in that trade, it has been suggested with much probability that the verb arose, in the sense ‘to deal by the dicker, to deal in skins’, among the traders with the Indians, and has thence extended in U.S. to trade by barter generally. If this be the fact, it is interesting that a word which passed from Latin into Germanic in special connexion with dealing in skins, and which has ever since in Europe been associated with this trade (see dicker n.1), should, in America, through similar dealings between a civilized and uncivilized race, have received another development of use.]
a. intr. To trade by barter or exchange; to truck; to bargain in a petty way, to haggle. Also in extended use (intr.): to dither, vacillate, hesitate. b. trans. To barter, exchange. Hence ˈdickering vbl. n.; also ˈdickerer, one who dickers.
| 1802 Port Folio (Phila.) ii. 268 (Th.), Dickering signifies all that honest conversation, preliminary to the sale of a horse, where the parties very laudably strive in a sort of gladiatorial combat of lying, cheating, and overreaching. 1824 Woodstock (Vermont) Observer 15 June 4/5 (Advt.) (Th.), The subscriber has for sale the following property which he wishes to dicker for. 1845 J. T. Headley Lett. fr. Italy xx. 99, I had acquired quite a reputation in dickering with the thieving Italian landlords and vetturini. 1848 J. F. Cooper Oak Openings (Bartlett), The white men who penetrated to the semi-wilds [of the West] were always ready to dicker and to swap. 1864 Sala in Daily Tel. 7 July, The required needle was dickered for the egg, and the Yankee was going away. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxiii. 457 By a process of dickering (i.e. bargaining by way of barter)..a list is settled on which the high contracting parties agree. 1891 Goldw. Smith Canadian Question, Government, in the persons of the Parliamentary heads of departments, is on the stump, or dickering for votes. 1891 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 2 Apr., Bargains that would do credit to London East End dickerers. 1891 Stevenson & Osbourne Wrecker (1892) iv. 63 To this romance of dickering I would reply with the romance..of art. 1947 D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 78 Phyllis dickers a bit but of course she finishes by getting up and saying she's going to play. 1960 Sunday Express 6 Nov. 17/5 He withdrew it [sc. a play] angrily when A.-R. dickered over the production date. 1961 John o'London's 25 May 589/2 Dickering on the edge of adulthood. 1962 Sunday Express 30 Sept. 4/5 The large stores who dicker and dither before they take a cheque. 1963 B. Pearson Coal Flat ix. 159 Henderson, though he dickered, usually came round to the majority opinion. |