Late 16th century: diminutive of Jock. Originally the name for an ordinary man, lad, or underling, the word came to mean 'mounted courier', hence the current sense (late 17th century). Another early use 'horse-dealer' (long a byword for dishonesty) probably gave rise to the verb sense 'manipulate', whereas the main verb sense probably relates to the behaviour of jockeys manoeuvring for an advantageous position during a race.

• A pet form of the man's name Jock, a northern form of jack, jockey was originally used, rather like Jack, for any ordinary man, boy, or underling. From this came a specialized sense of a servant as a mounted courier, which in the 17th century gave rise to today's meaning. In American slang a jockey was a specific kind of worker—so a beer jockey was a barmaid, a garage jockey a garage attendant, and a typewriter jockey a typist. From there it was natural to call someone who played records a disc jockey, in the 1940s.