April edition MP3 player supertest:

Rio Karma is a Stuff "Hot Buy"

"A potent combination of features, audio performance and extraordinarily good value for money makes the Rio one of our firm favourites. Touches such ethernet connectivity almost make us hawk our iPods for one at this price"

Karma, iPod, and Zen Extra all get 5 stars

almost make us hawk our iPods for one at this price

Help me out here, Bitt.
Shouldn't it be "hock our iPods" ?

Unless they meant it by these definitions:
transitive senses : to raise by trying to clear the throat <hawk up phlegm>
intransitive senses : to utter a harsh guttural sound in or as if in hawking

Whoops, my bad. Websters backs up their usage.

Etymology: back-formation from hawker
: to offer for sale by calling out in the street <hawking newspapers>;
broadly : SELL

I still find the first set of definitions more humorous and apropos.

My gut feeling is that they meant "hock", and only stumbled into a correct usage of "hawk" by sheer dumb luck.

back-formation from hawker

Houses in the UK frequently had a sign on the front gate: "No hawkers or circulars", but I've not seen it in recent years.

Whatever the source, to "hawk" something is a pretty common term where I'm from (Bristol).

Rob

If you've ever been to SE Asia street food sellers are called hawkers

Hmm, I always pictured this phrase in my head spelled this way: "I'm gonna get out of hock." As in get out of debt or something.

Dictionary.com:

hock3 Slang
tr.v. hocked, hock·ing, hocks
To pawn: hock a diamond ring.

n.
The state of being pawned: put the diamonds in hock.
The state of being in debt: thought we'd never get out of hock.

So they consider it slang.

Looking at the definitions in Dictionary.com, I think they really meant 'hock', not 'hawk'. I think they're two words with slightly different definitions. It's looking like 'hawk' means to sell like a merchant or vendor, whereas 'hock' means to pawn. I'm pretty sure they meant they wanted to pawn their iPods. Unless they own Apple stores.

No, I think they meant Hawk. They wanted to sell their iPods, not pawn them.

Interesting. I have always only heard "hawk" used in the context of "in-your-face" selling of merchandise of a bulk nature, generally of an inexpensive or low-grade type.

I.e., people hawking popcorn and hotdogs at a sports event. SE Asian street merchants hawking bootleg CDs. People hawking trinkets door to door.

For me this is the first time I have encountered this term being used for selling one single item, of non-trivial cost, person-to-person, non-professionally (i.e., not as a salesman).


E.g., I would never say, "I'm going to hawk this old sports jacket I don't need any more" or "I sure need to hawk that old fridge we have in the garage."

But I would say, "Maybe we should hawk brownies to raise money for a local charity."(*)

or

"I'm going to have to hock my guitar until my next paycheck comes in."

But, from what Rob says, it sounds like people in Bristol may use "hawk" in a far broader context.

But to me, "hawk" is one step above "shill" and maybe a slight step below "peddle" but certainly bearing sleazier connotations than the simple "sell."

So, I would "sell my iPod" or "chunk my iPod" or "blow chunks on my iPod" or "hock my iPod" or "hawk up on my iPod" but never ever "hawk my iPod." Then again, that's just me.

(*) Of course, given the "hawk up" usage I mentioned before, it might be best to avoid using this word in the same sentence with "brownies."

I was too lazy to write that post. I concur.

No, I think they meant Hawk. They wanted to sell their iPods, not pawn them.

Well I guess we're down to a matter opinion Both words basically mean to sell, and I simply think "hock" is both more common in this country, and more appropriate to the context.