▪ I. conker
(ˈkɒŋkə(r))
Also conquer.
[f. dial. conker snail-shell, prob. f. conqueror 1 f.]
a. pl. A boys' game, played originally with snail-shells (see quot. 1877) but now with horse-chestnuts, in which each boy has a chestnut on a string which he alternately strikes against that of his opponent and holds to be struck until one of the two is broken. b. A horse-chestnut (formerly a snail-shell) used in the game; hence gen. a snail-shell or horse-chestnut. Cf. conqueror 1 f and conquering vbl. n. b.
| 1847 Halliwell Dict. Arch. & Prov. Words I. 268/1 Conkers, snail-shells. East. 1866 J. G. Nall Great Yarmouth 534 Conkers, snail shells. 1877 F. Ross et al. Gloss. Holderness 45/1 Conkers,..small snail-shells. In the boy's game of conkers the apexes of two shells are pressed together until one is broken, the owner of the other being the victor. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-Bk. 95 Conquer, a snail-shell. In the children's game of pitting snail-shells one against the other, that which breaks its opponent is called the conquer. 1886 F. T. Elsworthy W. Somerset Word-Bk. 156 Conkers, horse-chestnuts... From this the name is given..to the tree—conker-tree. 1903 Little Frolic 78 ‘Please may I pick up the conquers?’ ‘What?’ said Bessie. Bessie did not know that the boys called the pretty brown chestnuts ‘conquers’. 1921 Spectator 2 July 8/1 There is a season for hoops and another for whip-tops,..to say nothing of the ‘conkers’ fashion. 1928 G. D. H. & M. Cole Man from River xxxiii. 246 ‘What's this?’ ‘A chestnut on a string,’ said Michael, picking it up. ‘Not much good to us, is it? They're hardly likely to have been playing conkers here.’ 1929 Morning Post 2 Oct. 10/5 The use of the horse-chestnut in the game of ‘Conquers’. 1963 Times 18 Jan. 9/4 Few, to be sure, are to be observed engaged in solemn duels with conkers, once a ravishing delight. 1965 East Anglian Mag. May 241/1 The shells of a small variegated snail were conkers. |
▪ II. conker
variant of kunkur.