A kinker is “an acrobat or other performer in a circus.” The evidence for this word is mostly from the first half of the 20th century in American English, and context gives us a few clues about how the word was used: it seems to have referred to any performer except clowns (who were sometimes called Joeys), and especially performers who had no featured act of their own.

In his novel about circus life during this period, Thomas Duncan gives the word a clear explanation in the context of show business more generally:

In vaudeville acrobats were pariahs who were assigned the shabbiest dressing rooms, who were just tolerated by the gag men and ignored by the top liners. It was very different in the circus. They called you a kinker in the circus but they respected you as an aristocrat.

—Thomas W. Duncan, Gus the Great, 1947

Although the origin of kinker is obscure, it seems to derive from kink, which came to English from the Dutch word meaning “twist” or “twirl.”

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