Word of the Day
: July 8, 2024dicker
playWhat It Means
To dicker is to talk or argue with someone about the conditions of a purchase, agreement, or contract.
// My favorite thing about flea markets is dickering over prices.
dicker in Context
“They haggled and dickered and bargained through a good number of dealerships.” — Terry Woster, Tri-State Neighbor (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), 7 Dec. 2023
Did You Know?
The origins of the verb dicker likely lie in an older dicker, the noun referring to a quantity of ten animal hides or skins. The idea is that the verb arose from the bartering of, and haggling over, animal hides on the American frontier. The noun dicker comes from decuria, the Latin word for a bundle of ten hides, and ultimately from the Latin word decem, meaning "ten." The word entered Middle English as dyker and by the 14th century had evolved to dicker.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Test Your Vocabulary
Unscramble the letters to create a verb meaning "to obtain by persistent arguing or maneuvering": ENGRAWL
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