erk slang.
(ɜːk)
Also irk.
[Of obscure origin.]
a. A naval rating. b. An aircraftman, esp. an A.C.2. c. transf. Used as a term of contempt.
| 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 89 Erk, a rating. (Navy). Lower deck colloquialism for any ‘rank’ not that of an officer. 1928 T. E. Lawrence Let. 20 Jan. (1938) 570 Cranwell, which was a home from home, for the irks. 1940 Reader's Digest May 31/2 The aviators..call their mechanics erks, apparently a corruption of A.C., the abbreviation for aircraftsman. 1943 P. Brennan et al. Spitfires over Malta iii. 65 The erks came running up to tell us that..the 109 had been diving down. 1944 E. Partridge in 19th Cent. Apr. 182 An erk, now used for an A.C.2..meant an air mechanic. This odd word is, the writer believes, a shortened pronunciation of the italicised letters in air mechanic (perhaps in the form of ‘air mech’)... Some airmen less convincingly maintain that it comes from ‘lower-deck hand’. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. x. 175 Somebody they dislike..may be called..erk, gawp, kid. |