Browse Definitions :

Hawk or hock?

Writing for Business

Which is correct?
An increasing number of lawyers are ________ compliance products.

a. hocking
b. hawking

Answer: b.

Explanation:

To hawk is to sell or attempt to sell something, especially to do so in a loud and intrusive manner. To hock is to pawn. So there is some  relationship between the words but they do not mean the same thing. Vendors hawk their products, for example. If they’re hocking them, on the other hand, that’s a bad sign. Avoid buying their stock.

Similarly, if lawyers were hocking compliance products it would mean they were taking them to the pawn shop to see what they could get for them. Also not a good sign — avoid hiring those lawyers.

***

Grammarist explains that hawker came before hawk:

“In the selling-related sense, hawk is a backformation from hawker, an Anglicization of an old German word.

***

Follow me on Twitter @tao_of_grammar

Dig Deeper on Writing for Business

Networking
Security
CIO
HRSoftware
  • talent pipeline

    A talent pipeline is a pool of candidates who are ready to fill a position.

  • recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)

    Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is when an employer turns the responsibility of finding potential job candidates over to a ...

  • human resources (HR) generalist

    A human resources generalist is an HR professional who handles the daily responsibilities of talent management, employee ...

Customer Experience
  • marketing campaign management

    Marketing campaign management is the planning, executing, tracking and analysis of direct marketing campaigns.

  • sales-qualified lead (SQL)

    A sales-qualified lead (SQL) is a prospective customer that has been researched and vetted -- first by an organization's ...

  • Adobe Experience Platform

    Adobe Experience Platform is a suite of customer experience management (CXM) solutions from Adobe.

Close