penker

• penka, panker

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

penker (plural penkers)

1. (Northern England, dialectal) A large marble, usually made of stone or metal, used in the game of marbles.
   • (Can we date this quote?), “(Geordie folk song)”:

     Wor Geordie's lost his penker

   • 1896, Frank M. T. Palgrave, A List of Words and Phrases in Every-day Use by the Natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, English Dialect Society, page 34:

     The 'panker' or 'panker' is a large marble, made of stone or iron. Each boy puts four marbles in a ring, and proceeds to knock them out of the ring with a panker.

   • 1987, Sid Chaplin, “The Night of the News”, in Michael Chaplin, Rene Chaplin, editors, In Blackberry Time, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Bloodaxe Books, →ISBN, page 72:

     Here he [Sid Chaplin] learnt to swim and how to jarp Easter eggs; he played with penkers, and shutty ring with glass alleys, and sometimes the men joined in games of tipcat.

   • 2004, Bill Griffiths, A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN, page 326:

     "the first boy threw a penker - much larger than the other marbles (boodies) - the next boy tried to hit it"