Etymograph

English

pecker

Pecker comes from Middle English piken ‘to pick at’, from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn ‘to peck, strike’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pikkōną1‘to pick, peck, prick’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pikkōn1‘to peck, strike’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*piccian1reconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500piken1‘to pick at’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pekken1
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pekker1
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1588pecker1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English pecker
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1588, Thomas Hariot, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia: “The women with short peckers or parers,... of a…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pikkōnąWiktionary, English pecker‘to pick, peck, prick’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pikkōnWiktionary, English pecker‘to peck, strike’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*piccianWiktionary, English peckerreconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pikenWiktionary, English pecker‘to pick at’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pekkenWiktionary, English pecker
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pekkerWiktionary, English pecker
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1588peckerWiktionary, English pecker. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1588, Thomas Hariot, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia: “The women with short peckers or parers,... of a…”

Linked words

through Old English *piccian

picker, 1 more

through Middle English piken ‘to pick at’

pick, 2 more

Today it means

noun Someone who or something that pecks, striking or piercing in the manner of a bird's beak or bill, particularly

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “pecker”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *pikkōną / pecker

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