Lurk

How to spell lurk

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lurk

What does lurk mean?

1. verbTo wait in hiding or move about furtively, often with the intention to do harm or go unnoticed.
2. verbTo read an online forum, chat, or thread without posting or contributing.

Lurk in a sentence

• A stranger seemed to lurk near the car park after midnight.

• Many people lurk on the support forum for months before asking a question.

• Doubts about the contract continued to lurk at the back of her mind.

• He prefers to lurk in the group chat rather than reply to every message.

Where does lurk come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Lurk first appears in Middle English around the early 1300s, with the sense of lying concealed and waiting, especially with bad intent. Its exact parentage is not fully certain, but it is widely thought to come from a Scandinavian source related to Old Norse and Norwegian words for moving stealthily or sneaking about; some scholars also link it to the older English word 'lour', meaning to scowl or look sullen, since both suggest something hanging back in the shadows. The word may even owe part of its shape to imitation, the kind of quiet, hunched word that sounds like what it describes. Over the centuries the menacing edge softened in many uses, so that a doubt can lurk in the mind or a problem can lurk in the background. In the internet age it gained a fresh, neutral sense: to read an online discussion without ever posting. The spelling stays mercifully simple, a short word with no silent letters, which is why it rarely trips up adult writers.

How the word is built

• lurk (a single Middle English root meaning to lie hidden); no prefix or suffix