berk

See also: Berk and bərk

English

Etymology

Cockney rhyming slang, an ellipsis and clipping of Berkeley Hunt, a prominent hunt at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, to mean cunt.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɝk/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɜː(ɹ)k/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k
• Homophones: birk, Bourke, burk, Burke, burke

Noun

berk (plural berks)

1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, derogatory, vulgar) a fool, a prat, a twit, etc. [1930]
   • 2003 July 12, Nicholas Lezard, “Ad execs quoting Gramsci? Only in France”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     His chat-up techniques have to be read to be imagined—they make the crudest of Loaded-style berks seem classy—and he earns far, far too much money.

   • 2006 February 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, season 1, episode 2:

     I don't know why they couldn't just keep it as it was! How hard is it to remember 911?
     You mean 999...
     I mean 999!
     That's the American one!
     Yeah!
     You berk.

Usage notes

Although the term remains in fairly wide use, its specific origin and meaning in rhyming slang is less well known, lessening its vulgarity.

Synonyms

• See fool and idiot

See also

• Belvoir (pronounced Beaver)

References

• "berk" in Chambers Dictionary
• "berk" in Jonathon Green's Cassell's Dictionary of Slang →ISBN
• “berk n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

Anagrams

• brek, kerb