The dictionary definition* of ‘jockey’ is (noun) a person who rides horses professionally in races. The informal is a person who pilots, operates or guides the movement of something, such as an aeroplane or automobile. The verb is to ride (a horse) as a jockey and the informal is to operate or guide the movement of something, as in to pilot or drive. Then, there’s the added meaning of ‘to aim at an advantage by skilful manoeuvring’ or to act with ‘trickily’; to seek an advantage by trickery.
In the 1660s, the early meaning of the word ‘jockey’ was a familiar or diminitive form of the name Jock, like Johnny for John or Dick for Richard. This use was prevalent in Northern England and Scotland.
Another possible origin is the Gaelic word ‘eachaidhe’, meaning a ‘horseman’, of which the medieval pronunciation is not far from ours of jockey. The Irish name of Eochaid is related to horses and translates into ‘horse rider’ and is also phonetically similar to jockey.
Around 1708, the meaning of the word jockey altered to mean ‘trickery, sharp, outwit, gain advantage’ and it was used as a noun. This, perhaps, related to its former secondary sense of ‘horse dealer or trader’ or rather unscrupulous horse dealers. The meaning ‘to ride a horse in a race’ was recorded from 1767 but it was most likely used before that.
Throughout both the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, the word was applied to ‘vagabonds’ and ‘tricksters’, arising to jockey being used as a verb, that it had continued to be used alongside dishonesty and in the manipulation sense. Nowadays, the main verb is used to describe the way jockeys manoeuvre during a race to gain the most advantageous placing – ‘jockeying for position’.
So, whether the actual origins of jockey were from an affectionate nickname, or another meaning for horse dealer or a way of describing dishonest practices, it has been associated with horse riders for hundreds of years. The word eventually evolved into signifying the courageous men and women who partner thoroughbreds in races on the Flat and over Jumps.
Jump jockey Richie McLernon riding during the 2020 Caronavirus Pandemic
*Dictionary definition from www.dictionary.com
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