Etymology: See huck v. Although the series huck, hucker, huckster, corresponds formally with bake, baker, baxter, brew, brewer, brewster, etc., in which the verb is the starting-point, the late date of huck as compared with huckster, and the continental parallels of the latter, make difficulties. Middle Dutch had hokester, hoekster, early modern Dutch heukster, ‘huckster’ feminine; also Middle Dutch hoeker, early modern Dutch heuker (masculine) = Middle Low German hoker, modern German höker, ‘higgler, hawker, retailer, market-man, costermonger’; none of these, however, appear to be known as early as our huckster. The origin of the Dutch and German words themselves is unsettled; German, besides höker, has höke, höcke, Middle High German hucke, Middle Low German hoke, to be referred, according to Kluge, probably to hocken to squat, sit on the ‘hunkers’; but Verwijs and Verdam state grounds for connecting Middle Dutch hoeker, hoekster rather with Dutch hoek a corner. The history is thus altogether obscure.

Etymology: < huckster n.Previous versions of the OED give the stress as: ˈhuckster.