Pronounced: si-suh-ROH-nee, noun
Notes: I didn’t know the definition, but my tentative guess at the origin was correct
Yesterday’s word
The word cocker, as a verb, means “to pamper or spoil”. As a noun, it is “a breed of small spaniel dog”
First usage
The verb definition came into English in the late 1400; the noun meaning came into English in the early 1800s.
Background / Comments
The verb definition was unknown to me… the origin of the verb form is not really known. The noun usage comes from dogs used in hunting of birds such as woodcock (thus, “cocker”). I have heard of “cocker spaniels”, but didn’t know that cocker itself was a word.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 