Spruiker

Question

I just discovered the Australian slang "spruiker" which looks oddly Afrikaans to me, where we would pronounce it "spraker".

The Macquarie Dictionary, at
http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/anonymous@FFC58128193+0/-/p/dict/slang-s.html, says, "a person who harangues prospective customers. (probably from Yiddish "shpruch" a saying or charm)", but I first discovered it in a context that looked like it meant "pimp", or possibly "prostitute":

"King's Cross, mid-afternoon, was plain sad. The girls weren't a surprise. I avoided their eyes and shook my head to their offers. The suited spruikers were just weird sex, a 24/7/365 industry."

Googling around suggests other meanings of "public speaker", "con man" and so on.
Can our AusE correspondents clarify (as in butter)?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I just discovered the Australian slang "spruiker" which looks oddly Afrikaans to me, where we would pronounce it "spraker". The Macquarie Dictionary, at[/nq]
http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/anonymous@FFC58128193+0/-/p/dict/slang-s.html,
[nq:1]says, "a person who harangues prospective customers. (probably from Yiddish "shpruch" a saying or charm)", but I first discovered it ... Googling around suggests other meanings of "public speaker", "conman" and so on. Can our AusE correspondents clarify (as in butter)?[/nq]
Ghee whiz! (Rimshot, clash!)
Macquarie's right. Also one who makes speeches, literally or figuratively. New to me as "con-man", though: that is or was more "spieler"; but there could easily be overlap.

Mike.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I just discovered the Australian slang "spruiker" which looks oddly Afrikaans to me, where we would pronounce it "spraker". The Macquarie Dictionary, at[/nq]
http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/anonymous@FFC58128193+0/-/p/dict/s lang-s.html,
[nq:1]says, "a person who harangues prospective customers. (probably from Yiddish "shpruch" a saying or charm)", but I first discovered it ... I avoided their eyes and shook my head to their offers. The suited spruikers were just weird ***, a 24/7/365 industry."[/nq]
Rather than 'spruiker' meaning pimp, he was a pimp who was spruiking.
[nq:1]Googling around suggests other meanings of "public speaker", "con man" and so on. Can our AusE correspondents clarify (as in butter)?[/nq]
Australian Oxford:
Spruik v.intr. Aust. colloq.
hold forth in public; deliver a harangue, esp. to advertise a show etc spruiker n.
spruiking n.
(ORIGIN: 20thC:origin unknown)

Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus those of alt.usage.english at tpg dot com dot au

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I just discovered the Australian slang "spruiker" which looks oddly Afrikaans to me, where we would pronounce it "spraker". The Macquarie Dictionary, at[/nq]
http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/anonymous@FFC58128193+0/-/p/dict/s
[nq:1]lang-s.html,[/nq]
Thank you.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I just discovered the Australian slang "spruiker" which looks oddly Afrikaans to me, where we would pronounce it "spraker". The Macquarie Dictionary, at[/nq]
http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/anonymous@FFC58128193+0/-/p/dict/slang-s.html,
[nq:1]says, "a person who harangues prospective customers. (probably from Yiddish "shpruch" a saying or charm)", but I first discovered it ... I avoided their eyes and shook my head to their offers. The suited spruikers were just weird ***, a 24/7/365 industry."[/nq]
In New Orleans, Louisiana, there are a lot of competing strip clubs in the French Quarter. They each have their own spruiker trying to get the drunk tourists to see their particular teenagers or cross-dressers. There's a bit more variety than just that, but who cares about it? I think I used to know a word exactly synomymous with spruiker, but I can't think of it.

MG

Usenet · Answer

Barker? Shill? CDB

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]... I first discovered it in a context that looked like it meant "pimp", or possibly "prostitute": "King's Cross, mid-afternoon, ... I avoided their eyes and shook my head to their offers. The suited spruikers were just weird ***, a 24/7/365 industry."[/nq]
I'd personally consider this a slightly strange use of "spruiker". If you walk around the main streets of Sydney, you'll encounter people armed with microphones (and also, usually, with British accents). They stand outside stores and advertise brilliant new products, discounts, sales, etc. Their patter, the flow of their sales pitch, is impressive. This I'd consider the paradigmatic context of "spruiker".

If, on the other hand, you walked around Kings Cross, I think you'd be unlikely to find the same set-up no microphones, no Brit accents, no discounts, no eloquence. But every bouncer you pass (and most of them are "suited) will, if you're male, attempt to entice you in. "We got pretty girls come take a look", "Hey fellers, looking for a good night out?", etc. Such people are unlikely to be "pimps" in the sense of a guy who manages a group of street-walkers (probably an uncommon arrangement in Sydney anyway) or in the sense of a brothel owner.

Note, also, that these establishements the bouncers are asking you into will (I think) be strip clubs, not brothels per se, though I'm told that strip clubs sometimes offer brothel services. It might even be illegal to solicit people into brothels.
==
Regards,
VI
http://kenm.mydeardiary.com/

Usenet · Answer

http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/anonymous@FFC58128193+0/-/p/dict/slang-s.html,
[nq:2]In New Orleans, Louisiana, there are a lot of competing ... synomymous with spruiker, but I can't think of it. MG[/nq]
[nq:1]Barker? Shill? CDB[/nq]
Yes. Barker. That was it. Doesn't seem so easy to forget, somehow, but SH.
MG

Spruiker

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