Knickerbocker

Meaning

Noun

• A New Yorker, particularly a scion of its old Dutch families
• A player for the New York Knicks
• A player for the New York Knickerbockers

Origin

• From Diedrich Knickerbocker, the pseudonym adopted by Washington Irving for his 1809 A History of New York, probably for the Knickerbackers of Schaghticoke, New York, descended from the Dutch immigrant Harmen Jansen van Bommel(l), who went variously by the names van Wy(y)e, van Wyekycback(e), Kinnekerbacker, Knickelbacker, Knickerbacker, Kinckerbacker, Nyckbacker, and Kynckbacker. The surname is of uncertain etymology, being variously explained as a corruption of Wyekycback, German & Dutch knacker + Bäcker, bakker, or Dutch knicker + Bäcker, bakker.