Etymograph / Myth vs. record / hooker

Myth vs. record

hooker

Every word has its own definition in its root. Some words also carry a story about where they came from. Here is what Wiktionary says about the story, and what the record shows.

What Wiktionary says about the story

The "prostitute" sense is the subject of a folk etymology connecting it to General Hooker of the American Civil War, but the earliest known use dates to 1835, decades before the war.

The record

Hooker comes from English hook ‘a spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned…’.

1. English1500–presenthook¹‘a spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end’
2. Englishearliest quotation 1993hooker¹