Wanker

Wanker is a pejorative term of British origin, also common in Australia and New Zealand, literally meaning one who wanks (masturbates). It is particularly used of someone (usually male) who is self-obsessed and/or a show-off. It has the similar meanings and overtones to American pejorative terms such as "jerk", "jerk-off", or "prick".

The term wanker has also been extended as a generic insult to cover self-aggrandizement or overly showy performance, specifically where the performer's impression of their own talent and ability manifestly exceeds that of the audience. By extension, "wanking" can describe any activity which is showy but gives pleasure mainly to the participant, such as playing air guitar, free-form guitar playing, drum solos, or progressive jazz saxophone solos.

Although masturbation is now seen as a widespread and acceptable practice, the insulting properties of these terms still remain. The idea is not to draw attention to the fact that a male masturbates; rather, it is to emphasise that (because of his very poor social skills) he has so little sexual interaction with others that his only remaining option is to masturbate. As with many profanities, it is considered much less shocking today than before, but is nevertheless an insult.

The idea can also be conveyed using a hand gesture involving curling the fingers of the hand into a loose fist and moving the hand back and forth in symbolic imitation of the act of male masturbation. This is probably most common during altercations between motorists, particularly demonstrated by the show of a "hand-shandy" in front of the rear-view mirror for the benefit of a recently-overtaken motorist.

Various jocular rhyming slang terms exist for wanker and wank, including merchant banker, Sherman (short for Sherman Tank), J. Arthur (J. Arthur Rank) and Jodrell (Jodrell Bank).

Usage and social acceptability

As with the word "jerk", the level of insult is dependent upon the situation. However, the use of the word in a potentially aggressive situation (such as a soccer game) can lead to much more serious consequences.

The term wanker has not been considered profane in the USA because of its British origins. In the ribald American sitcom Married... with Children, the character Peggy's maiden name was Wanker; Al Bundy's in-laws were therefore the Wankers. An episode of Mork & Mindy also included a character called Arnold Wanker, though this aired before the understanding of the term was common throughout the U.S. and was less likely to be intentional, as the Married... with Children usage was. Chandler also referred to someone as a "wank" in an episode of Friends.

As most Americans are familiar with the term nowadays, such "incidental" uses as the Mork & Mindy example have declined. However, there remains an American brand of bottled beer named Wanker.

In the UK, the term would not generally be acceptable for use in front of minors, and would most likely lead to some form of discipline for those who were to say it during daytime television in the United Kingdom. That said, an infamous out-take from the word game Countdown records a moment when both contestants offered the word wankers as their answer, much to the embarrassment of the host of the show, the late Richard Whiteley.

A common use is in the phrase "The Referee is a Wanker", or "Who's the wanker in the black?", commonly chanted by football supporters to express disapproval towards a referee, almost invariably following a decision unfavourable to their team.

Humorous uses are common; a notable example being the song I'm a wanker in the cult TV comedy Men Behaving Badly, or the line "[I'm] not a wanker or a banker" in Devo's Triumph of the Will. There is an obvious separation between the insult and the reality of the act.

A related but less common slang term is wankered to mean "drunk". This usage is almost exclusively found in the UK, primarily in youth culture.

Other uses

According to the 1990 Census, "Wanker" is the 53,492nd most common surname in the United States. [1]

In New Orleans, the term "wanker" is used as an abbreviation of West Banker, referring to someone who lives on the West Bank of the Mississippi in the New Orleans metro area. The term is used derogatorily by those who live on the East Bank of the river (particularly Uptown New Orleans), but it does not carry the same meaning as that of the British usage.