mocker [LME] The phrase to put the mockers on, ‘to put an end to, thwart’, is originally Australian. It dates from the early 20th century and may come from Yiddish make ‘sore, plague’, or be the same word as mocker [LME] meaning ‘someone who mocks’. Another Antipodean mocker, meaning ‘clothes, dress’, was brought back from Egypt by New Zealand troops after the First World War. It is based on Egyptian Arabic makwagi ‘presser of clothes’—in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries there are clothes-pressing establishments with changing rooms where people can shed the outfits they are wearing and have them pressed. Mock [LME] meaning ‘to make fun of’ is a quite different word, from Old French mocquer ‘to ridicule’.