▪ I. hacker, n.
(ˈhækə(r))
[f. hack v.1 + -er1.]
1. One who hacks; one who hoes with a hack.
| 1620 Markham Farew. Husb. ii. ii. (1668) 4 One good hacker, being a lusty labourer, will at good ease hack or cut more than half an acre of ground in a day. 1784 New Spectator IV. 5/1 Hackers and hewers of reputation. |
† b. A ‘cutter’, cut-throat, bully; = hackster.
| 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iii. (1586) 135 b, Like these cutters, and hackers, who will take the wall of men, and picke quarrells. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet B b, There is an olde hacker that shall take order for to print them. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. xiii. (1651) 118 A common hacker or notorious thief. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) Ded., How comes City and Country to be filled with Drones and Rogues, our highwaies with hackers, and all places with sloth and wickedness? |
† c. fig. One who mangles words or sense. Obs.
| a 1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) 606 To make the Author of the Epistle such a hacker and mangler as they themselues be. |
2. That which hacks; an implement for hacking, chopping wood, or breaking up earth; a chopper, cleaver; a hoe, mattock.
| 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 137 Item, for hakkeres ij.d. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 292/2 The Dutch Cleever, or Chopping Knife, is termed an Hacker, or Hack-mes. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1752) 214 My labourers came from mowing vetches..not having their hackers with them. 1854 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XV. i. 100 Hoeing with a heavy hacker or hoe between the rows. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Hacker, a short, strong, slightly curved implement of a peculiar kind, for chopping off the branches of fallen trees, etc. 1890 Gloucestersh. Gloss., Hacker, a sort of axe for cutting faggots. |
b. U.S. A tool for making an oblique incision in a tree, as a channel for the passage of sap, gum, or resin.
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. |
3. a. A person with an enthusiasm for programming or using computers as an end in itself. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1976 J. Weizenbaum Computer Power & Human Reason iv. 118 The compulsive programmer, or hacker as he calls himself, is usually a superb technician. 1977 Time 5 Sept. 39/1 Some 500 retail outlets have opened in the past couple of years to sell and service microcomputers—and serve as hangouts for the growing legions of home-computer nuts, or ‘hackers’ as they call themselves. 1982 Sci. Amer. Oct. 110/1 In the jargon of computer science a hacker is someone who spends much of his time writing computer programs. 1983 Byte May 298/1 ‘Hacker’ seems to have originated at MIT. The original German/Yiddish expression referred to someone so inept as to make furniture with an axe, but somehow the meaning has been twisted so that it now generally connotes someone obsessed with programming and computers but possessing a fair degree of skill and competence. 1984 Which Micro? Dec. 17/3 A hacker might spend more time playing his own version of PacMan than on useful program development. 1986 A & B Computing Nov. 16/3 The on-screen help is for the casual user but there's plenty for the hacker who wants to tinker with the software and tailor it for special purposes. |
b. A person who uses his skill with computers to try to gain unauthorized access to computer files or networks. colloq.
| 1983 Daily Tel. 3 Oct. 3/1 A hacker—computer jargon for an electronic eavesdropper who by-passes computer security systems—yesterday penetrated a confidential British Telecom message system being demonstrated live on BBC-TV. 1985 U.S.A. Today 18 Oct. a1/4 A gang of 23 teen-age computer hackers has done ‘significant damage’ to Chase Manhattan Bank's records. 1986 TeleLink Sept.–Oct. 25/2 Just for fun, the hackers decided to drop a few APBs (All Points Bulletins) into the local police computer, with the result that, when out driving in his car, he was repeatedly stopped. |
▪ II. hacker, v. dial.
[freq. of hack v.1]
1. trans. ‘To hash in cutting, to hack small’ (Jam.).
| 1807 Hogg Mountain Bard 18 (Jam.) His throat was a' hackered, an' ghastly was he. |
2. intr. To hesitate in utterance; to stammer; to ‘hum and ha’.
| 1787 Grose Provinc. Gloss., Hacker, to stutter. S[outh]. 1818 Cobbett Pol. Reg. XXXIII. 473 Compared with this, how can one think with patience of the hackering, and stammering [etc.]? 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 115 To stammer and hacker, to bow and curtsey. |
3. To haggle.
| 1833 Blackw. Mag. XXXIV. 688 Shall national parsimony..hacker about the remuneration? |