berk

The usage dates from the 1930s; berk is a shortened version of Berkeley Hunt, the hunt based at Berkeley Castle, in Gloucestershire. In Cockney rhyming slang, hunt is a rhyme for cunt, giving the word its original slang meaning.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɜː(ɹ)k/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k
• Homophone: birk

In both Berkeley and Berkshire, berk is pronounced in RP like bark (IPA^(key): /bɑː(ɹ)k/). In other cases such as Cockney and American English pronunciation, it rhymes with work.

berk (plural berks)

1. (Britain, slang, derogatory, sometimes affectionate) A fool, prat, twit.
2. (Cockney rhyming slang, vulgar) Cunt.

Not perceived as excessively rude, perhaps because its origin in rhyming slang is not well known.

• Belvoir (pronounced Beaver)

• Chambers Dictionary: Entry for berk
• Cassell's Dictionary of Slang. Jonathon Green. Pub. Cassel & Co. →ISBN

• brek, kerb

From berr (cf. derk from derr).

berk m

1. goat

• berr

From Proto-Albanian *bardz(i)ka, from *bardza > bardhë (“white”). Similar sense development as in barmë[1].

berk m (indefinite plural berkë, definite singular berku, definite plural berkët)

1. bast

From Middle Dutch berke, from Old Dutch *berka, from Proto-Germanic *berkō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵós.

• IPA^(key): /bɛrk/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: berk
• Rhymes: -ɛrk

berk m (plural berken, diminutive berkje n)

1. birch, tree of the genus Betula

• berkenboom
• berkenroede
• berkhaan
• berkhoen

• Afrikaans: berk

• IPA^(key): /bɛʁk/

• Audio

  (file)

berk

1. Alternative form of beurk: yuck!

From Old Turkic [script needed] (bérk), from Proto-Turkic *berk (“mighty”). Related to pek.

berk

1. strong, hard, robust, violent
2. heroic
3. firm, solid

• sert, katı [1]
• sağlam [2]

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “berk”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Starostin, Sergei; Dybo, Anna; Mudrak, Oleg (2003) Etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8), Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill: “*parki”