different between hork vs dork

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeia or imitative. For “cough up” sense, compare hawk/hock (16th century), which are almost homophonous in non-rhotic accents. For “throw” sense, compare huck. The “foul up” sense is presumably influenced by bork (late 1990s), from broken.

Pronunciation

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

Verb

hork (third-person singular simple present horks, present participle horking, simple past and past participle horked)

1. (computing, slang) To foul up; to be occupied with difficulty, tangle, or unpleasantness; to be broken.

   I downloaded the program, but something is horked and it won't load.

2. (slang, regional) To steal, especially petty theft or misnomer in jest.

   Can I hork that code from you for my project?

3. (slang) To vomit, cough up.
4. (slang) To throw.

   Let's go hork pickles at people from the back row of the movie theatre.

5. (slang) To eat hastily or greedily; to gobble.

   I don't know what got into her, but she horked all those hoagies last night!

6. (slang, transitive) To move.

   Go hork the kegs from out back.

Usage notes

Senses “eat quickly” and “vomit” can be ambiguous, particularly when applied to food – this is a contranym. These senses can be disambiguated by using "hork up" for "vomit" and "hork down" for "eat quickly."

Synonyms

• (foul up): bork
• (throw): hork
• (cough up): hawk, hock
• (gobble): gobble, scarf, scoff

Anagrams

• Kohr, Kroh, khor

English

Etymology 1

US 1960s, sense of "silly person" presumably from earlier use as bowdlerization of dick (“penis”) in student slang, particularly Midwest.

Alternative etymology derives from dialectal Norwegian dorg (“a mass; heap; a heavy, dimwitted, slovenly person”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

dork (plural dorks)

1. (derogatory, slang) A quirky, silly and/or stupid, socially inept person, or one who is out of touch with contemporary trends. Often confused with nerd and geek, but does not imply the same level of intelligence. [from the 20th c.]
   • 1967, Don Moser and Jerry Cohen, The Pied Piper of Tucson:

     I didn’t have any clothes and I had short hair and looked like a dork. Girls wouldn’t go out with me.

2. (vulgar, slang) A penis. [from the 20th c.]

Usage notes

Narrowly used to indicate someone inept or out of touch, broadly used to mean simply “silly, foolish”; compare doofus, twit.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:dork
• See also Thesaurus:penis

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• dweeb

Etymology 2

Uncertain; apparently from Scots. See dirk.

Noun

dork (plural dorks)

1. (archaic) Alternative form of dirk (“a long dagger”)

References

Anagrams

• K-Rod