jockey

The word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning trickster, a "sharp", whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit" or "to do" a person out of something. The current meaning of a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670.

Another possible origin is the Gaelic word eachaidhe, a "horseman" (pronounced YACH-ee-yuh in late medieval times, with the ch pronounced as in German). The Irish name Eochaid (YO-ked) is related to each (yek) "horse" and is usually translated as "horse rider". This is phonetically very similar to jockey. More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jockey#Etymology

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒɒki/
• Rhymes: -ɒki

jockey (plural jockeys)

1. One who rides racehorses competitively.
2. That part of a variable resistor or potentiometer that rides over the resistance wire
3. An operator of some machinery or apparatus.
4. (dated) A dealer in horses; a horse trader.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Macaulay to this entry?)

5. (dated) A cheat; one given to sharp practice in trade.
6. (Britain, crime, slang) A prostitute's client.
7. (Ireland, crime, slang) A rapist.

• (prostitute's client): see Thesaurus:prostitute's client

• disc jockey
• jet jockey
• jock

• “jockey” in Eric Partridge; Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Abingdon, Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2007, →ISBN.

jockey (third-person singular simple present jockeys, present participle jockeying, simple past and past participle jockeyed)

1. To ride (a horse) in a race.
2. To jostle by riding against.

   They were jockeying for position toward the end of the race.

3. To maneuver (something) by skill for one's advantage.
4. To cheat or trick.

• jockey for position

• IPA^(key): /ˈjokːei̯/, [ˈjo̞kːe̞i̯]

jockey

1. jockey (rider)

From English

• IPA^(key): /ʒɔ.kɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

jockey m (plural jockeys)

1. jockey

• “jockey” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

jockey m (invariable)

1. jack, knave (playing card)
2. jockey

From English jockey

jockey m (definite singular jockeyen, indefinite plural jockeyer, definite plural jockeyene)

1. a jockey (horse racing)

• “jockey” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From English jockey

jockey m (definite singular jockeyen, indefinite plural jockeyar, definite plural jockeyane)

1. a jockey (horse racing)

• “jockey” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• yóquey

jockey m (plural jockeys or jockey)

1. jockey
2. (Chile) baseball cap