▪ I. lurker1
(ˈlɜːkə(r))
[f. lurk v. + -er1.]
1. One who lurks or lies concealed: freq. employed as a term of abuse in early quots. lit. and fig.
| a 1325 Names of Hare in Rel. Ant. I. 133 The wilde der, the lepere, The shorte der, the lerkere. 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles iii. 57 But as sone as þey [the young birds]..steppe kunne, Þan cometh and crieth her owen kynde dame, and they ffolwith þe vois,..and leueth þe lurker þat hem er ladde. a 1400–50 Alexander 3543 Þou litill thefe, þou losangere, þou lurkare in cities. c 1470 Henryson Fables v. Parl. Beasts xl, ‘For goddis lufe, my lord, gif me the law Of this lurker’; with that lowrence let draw. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. viii. 89 b, He is a starter a syde or a lurkar [L. emansor]. 1620 Bp. Hall Hon. Mar. Clergy i. xxiv. 129 If this lawlesse Lurker had euer had any taste of the Ciuill or Canon Law, hee might haue beene able to construe that Maxime. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. i. vi. Wks. 1851 III. 121 It was well knowne what a bold lurker schisme was even in the houshold of Christ. 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. vii. App. (1852) 631 Two men at Exeter were killed by some of the same dangerous lurkers. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xix, In hopes to find that the lurker had disappeared. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. II. iii. 498 Then did the lurkers from the gully bound. |
2. A begging impostor; a petty thief.
| c 1842 Exposure of Impositions practised by Vagrants 4 Lurkers are persons who go about with briefs, containing false statements of losses by fire, shipwrecks, accidents, &c. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 219 Armed with these [sham official documents], the patterer becomes a ‘lurker’,—that is, an impostor. Ibid. 363 A lurker being strictly one who loiters about for some dishonest purpose. 1925 H. Leverage in Flynn's IV. 869/2 Lurker, a swindler. 1973 G. Butler Coffin for Pandora i. 27, I knew the lingo. A macer was a cheat or a sharper and a lurker was a man with a story of hard luck to tell. |
¶ 3. App. misused for lurcher.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 317/2 Lurcare.., lurco. |
▸ Chiefly Computing slang. A person who reads communications to an electronic network without actively contributing.
| 1984 Sci. Amer. Sept. 83/2 (advt.) That'll fool the ‘lurkers’, those CB ‘see it alls’ who get their kicks by watching. 1991M. Heim in M. Benedikt Cyberspace (1993) 76 People do not just observe one another, they become ‘lurkers’. 1992 N.Y. Times 1 Dec. c14/6 [He] estimates that there are five or six lurkers for each poster on a bulletin board. 1994 Guardian 7 July (Online Suppl.) 6/1 You can see everyone who's logged on and providing a TV signal. You don't need a TV card or camera, you'll just be a ‘lurker’. 1998 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 21 Dec. d6/5 Long-time lurkers who decide to join the conversation are said to be ‘delurking’. |
▪ II. lurker2
(ˈlɜːkə(r))
(See quots. 1825, 1880.)
| 1825 Encycl. Lond. XX. 435/1 [In pilchard fishing] the third boat is called the lurker, and carries three or four men. 1880 W. Cornwall Gloss., Lurker, a boat in which the master seiner sits to give instructions. 1902 Longm. Mag. Aug. 349 The lurkers were lifted over mud and shingle, the crews sprang, tumbled, or were pushed on board. |