different between dirk vs firk

English

Etymology

Etymology unknown, apparently from Scots drik.First attested in 1602 as dork, in the later 17th century as durk. The spelling dirk is due to Johnson's Dictionary of 1755.

Early quotations as well as Johnson 1755 suggest that the word is of Scottish Gaelic origin, but no such Gaelic word is known. The Gaelic name for the weapon is biodag. Gaelic duirc is merely an 18th-century adoption of the English word.

A possible derivation is from the Scandinavian personal name Dirk (short for Diederik), which is used of lock-picking tools (but not of knives or daggers). Another possibility is that dork originates as a sailor's or soldier's corruption of dolk, the Dutch and Scandinavian form of German Dolch (“dagger”).

The American slang term may be a variant of dick (“penis”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d?k/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k

Noun

dirk (plural dirks)

1. A long Scottish dagger with a straight blade.
   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     In half a minute he had reached the port scuppers, and picked, out of a coil of rope, a long knife, or rather a short dirk, discolored to the hilt with blood.

2. (Midwestern US, dated, slang) A penis; dork.
   • May 1964, Lawrence Poston, "Some Problems in the Study of Campus Slang", American Speech volume 39, issue 2

     The word dick itself serves as model for two variants which are probably Midwestern, dirk and dork, also meaning "penis"...

3. (Midwestern US, dated, slang) A socially unacceptable person; an oddball.
   • May 1964, Lawrence Poston, "Some Problems in the Study of Campus Slang", American Speech volume 39, issue 2

     ...on at least one Midwestern campus a dirk may be an "oddball" student, while a prick (more common) is of course an offensive one.

Translations

Verb

dirk (third-person singular simple present dirks, present participle dirking, simple past and past participle dirked)

1. To stab with a dirk.
2. (obsolete) To darken.
   • c. 1378, Geoffrey Chaucer (translator), Boece, Book I:

     The beaute the whiche clothes a derknesse of a forleten and despised elde hadde duskid and dirked, as it is wont to dirken besmokede ymages

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

dirk

1. imperative of dirka

Scots

Alternative forms

• durk

Etymology

From earlier durk, of uncertain origin; perhaps related to German Dolch (“dagger”).

Noun

dirk (plural dirks)

1. dirk

Verb

dirk (third-person singular present dirks, present participle dirkin, past dirkt, past participle dirkt)

1. dirk

English

Alternative forms

• ferk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??(?)k/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k

Etymology 1

From Middle English firken, ferken (“to proceed, hasten”), from Old English fercian (“to bring, assist, support, carry, conduct, convey, proceed”); perhaps akin to Old English faran (“to fare, go”), English fare; if so, equivalent to fare +? -k. Cognate with Old High German fuora (“benefit, sustenance, support”), Swabian fergen, ferken (“to bring, dispatch”).

Verb

firk (third-person singular simple present firks, present participle firking, simple past and past participle firked)

1. (transitive) To carry away or about; carry; move.
2. (transitive) To drive away.

   I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him. - Shakespeare The Life of Henry the Fifth: IV, iv

3. (transitive) To rouse; raise up.
4. (intransitive) To move quickly; go off or fly out suddenly; turn out.
   • 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist

     A wench is a rare bait, with which a man / No sooner's taken but he straight firks mad.

Noun

firk (plural firks)

1. A stroke; lash.

Etymology 2

Probably an alteration of freak.

Noun

firk (plural firks)

1. (Britain dialectal) A freak; trick; quirk.

Derived terms

• firkery