Jockey, subs. (old: now recognised in most senses).—1. A professional
rider; also a horse-dealer. Hence (see quot. 1690) a sharper. Also
(colloquially) jock and gentlemen-jock and jocker.
1638. Brome, Antipodes, i. 5. Let my fine lords talk o’ their
horse-tricks, and their jockies that can out-talke them.
1684. R. Head, Proteus Redivivus, 306. There are such plenty of
jockeys in this bungalow, they swarm everywhere.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Jockeys, rank Horse-Coursers,
Race Riders; also Hucksters or Sellers of Horses, very slippery
Fellow to deal with.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1725. Bailey, Colloq. Erasmus, i. 412. You know what cheating
tricks are play’d by our jockeys, who sell and let out Horses.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, vii. The tribes of gipsies, jockeys, or
cairds,—for by all these denominations such banditti were
known,—became few in number.
1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, vi. p. 252 [ed. 1846]. And what with
keeping a hunting box Following fox.... Shooting blue rocks,
Trainers and Jocks....
d. 1881. G. Borrow (in Annandale).—The word jockey is neither more
nor less than the term (chukni) slightly modified, by which they
(the gypsies) designate the formidable whips which they usually
carry, and which are at present in general use amongst
horse-traffickers, under the title of jockey-whips.