berk

berk
n
a fool.
This word, which has been wide-spread since the early 1960s in Britain and Australia (where it was introduced via British TV comedies), is used as a form of mild derision by many speakers who would be shocked by its original meaning in rhyming slang. The origin is 'Berkeley hunt' or 'Berkshire hunt', meaning cunt which, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was a cockney syn-onym for a fool.
► How tempting it must have been to add: "...despite what you may gathered from that posturing berk, Chirac".' (Quentin Letts writing in the Daily Mail, 24 June 2005)

Contemporary slang . 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • berk — berk …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • Berk — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Dick Berk (* 1939), US amerikanischer Jazz Musiker Ernst Otto Berk (* 1952), deutscher Brigadegeneral Gerlinde Berk (* 1940), deutsche Politikerin İlhan Berk (1918–2008), türkischer Dichter und Essayist… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Berk — may refer to one of several things:* Berk , a character in the television series The Trap Door * Berk , slang for an idiot * Berk , rhyming slang for Cunt ( Berkeley Hunt )Berk may also refer to * İlhan Berk (1918 2008), a Turkish poet. ee also*… …   Wikipedia

  • berk — [ bɛrk ] ou beurk [ bɶrk ] interj. • v. 1960; onomat. ♦ Interjection exprimant le dégoût. ⇒ pouah. C est dégoûtant. Berk ! berk [bɛʀk] ou beurk [bœʀk] interj. ÉTYM. V. 1960; onomatopée …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • berk — [bə:k US bə:rk] n BrE informal [Date: 1900 2000; Origin: Berkeley hunt, rhyming slang for cunt, originally the name of a fox hunting association] a stupid person ▪ No, you berk, they only do that in films! …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Berk. — Berk. Berkeley Культурология. XX век. Энциклопедия. 1998 …   Энциклопедия культурологии

  • Berk — Berk. bei Pflanzennamen Abkürzung für M. I. Berkeley (s. d. 3) …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • berk — [bʉrk] n. [Brit. Slang] a stupid person; fool * * * …   Universalium

  • berk — bèrk s.m.inv. TS fis. unità di misura del potenziale gravitazionale della Terra {{line}} {{/line}} DATA: sec. XX. ETIMO: etim. incerta …   Dizionario italiano

  • berk — fool, 1936, abbreviation of Berkshire Hunt (or Berkeley Hunt), rhyming slang for cunt but typically applied only to contemptible persons, not to the body part. This is not an objective, anatomical term, neither does it imply coitus. It connects… …   Etymology dictionary

  • berk — is a BrE slang term for a fool. It is not usually regarded as strongly offensive, despite its association, via rhyming slang Berkshire Hunt (pronounced as in AmE), with cunt …   Modern English usage

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