I decided to take a couple of ‘conker’ photographs today, and as I was playing around with the camera I wondered where the name conker originated…
-
Conkers (n.) “child’s game played with horse chestnuts,” originally with snail shells, 1847, probably a variant of conquer. The goal was to break the other player’s item by hitting it with yours.
-
-
Conquer (v.) c.1200, cunquearen, from Old French conquerre “conquer, defeat, vanquish,” from Vulgar Latin *conquaerere (for Latin conquirere) “to search for, procure by effort, win,” from Latin com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + quaerere “to seek, gain” (see query (v.)). Related: Conquered; conquering.
Not sure I fancy playing with snail shells 😉
- Etymology from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php
-