Etymology Dictionary

JEER,  to mock, scoff.  (Du.)   In Shak. Com. Errors, ii. 2. 22.   'He saw her toy, and gibe, and geare;'  Spenser, F.Q. ii. 6. 21.   'There you named the famous jeerer, That ever jeered in Rome or Athens;' Beaum. and Fletcher, Nice Valour, v. I (Song).   It seems to have been regarded as a foreign word; see Ben Jonson, Staple of News, iv. I. 5:  'Let's jeer a little.   Jeer?  what's that?   Expect, sir,' i.e. wait a bit, and you will find out.   β. The origin of the word is very curious.   From the Du. gek, a fool, and scheeren, to shear, was formed the phrase den gek scheeren (lit. to shear the fool), to mock, jeer, make a fool of one.   Soon these words were run together, and the word gekscheeren was used in the sense of jeering.   See Sewel's Dict. which gives the above forms, as well as the sb. gekscheeren, 'a jeering, fooling, jesting:  Ik laat my niet gekscheeren, I will not be trifled with.'   This is still preserved in mod. Du. gekscheren, to jest, banter, and in the phrase het is geen gekscheren, it is no laughing matter.   γ. The phrase was also used as scheeren den gek, to play the fool; whence simply scheeren, 'to gibe, or to jest' (Hexham).   And hence the E. jeer.   C. The word gek, a fool, is probably connected with gawky; scheeren is E. shear.   See Gawky and Shear.   ¶ Such I take to be the true explanation of this difficult word.  It is hardly worth while to notice the numerous other solutions.   Mahn's objection that G. sch cannot become E. j does not apply to the Du. sch.   Wedgwood's remark that the word is also spelt yeer is a mistake; it is founded on the fact that Junius, in manipulating the word, chose to spell it so without authority.   Der. jeer, sb., Oth. iv. I. 83.