- badger (n.)
- 1520s, from M.E. bageard, perhaps from bage "badge" + -ard "one who carries some action or possesses some quality," suffix related to M.H.G. -hart "bold" (see -ard). If so, the central notion is the badge-like white blaze on the animal's forehead (cf. Fr. blaireau "badger," from O.Fr. blarel, from bler "marked with a white spot"). But blaze (2) was the usual word for this. The O.E. name for the creature was the Celtic borrowing brock. In Amer.Eng., the nickname of inhabitants or natives of Wisconsin (1833).
- badger (v.)
- 1794, from badger (n.), based on the behavior of the dogs in the medieval sport of badger-baiting.