Link Centre Dictionary

hacker

hac·ker

UK/hækə/ US/hækəɹ/ fairly common uk us

noun

1.

someone who plays golf poorly

2.

a programmer who breaks into computer systems in order to steal or change or destroy information as a form of cyber-terrorism

Synonyms
3.

a programmer for whom computing is its own reward; may enjoy the challenge of breaking into other computers but does no harm

  • “true hackers subscribe to a code of ethics and look down upon crackers”
4.

one who works hard at boring tasks

Synonyms

Origin

From Late Middle English hackere, hakker, hakkere (“one who cuts wood, woodchopper, woodcutter; (rare) tool for cutting wood”), from hakken, hacke (“to cut (something) with a chopping action, hack; to make a chopping action”) + -er(e) (suffix forming agent nouns). Hakken is derived from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn (“to chop, hack”), from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop, hack”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; a handle; a hook; a peg”). The English word may be analysed as hack (“to chop or cut down in a rough manner”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

Phrases

  • civic hacker
  • growth hacker
  • kernel hacker
  • pedestrian hacker

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.