choke + -er

Choker is English, from choke (to constrict the throat, from Old English ācēocian, to choke) plus the agentive suffix -er. The word appeared in jewelry contexts in the 1870s. The object — a band worn tightly around the neck — is much older. Maori women wore pounamu (greenstone) pendants on tight cords. Sumerian women wore gold chokers. But the English word names the sensation, not the object: a choker chokes.

The modern choker's popularity began with Alexandra, Princess of Wales (later Queen consort of Edward VII), who wore high choker necklaces — possibly to conceal a scar on her neck. Court fashion followed her lead in the 1880s and 1890s. Multiple strands of pearls wound tight around the throat became the signature look of the Edwardian aristocracy. Simultaneously, sex workers in Paris wore black velvet ribbon chokers to identify themselves — the same accessory, two completely different meanings.

The choker returned in cycles: the 1920s (flapper culture), the 1940s (wartime simplicity), the 1990s (grunge and goth fashion, when tattoo-pattern stretch chokers became ubiquitous among teenagers). Each revival carried different associations. The 1990s choker was a dollar-store item. Edwardian chokers were pearl and diamond. The form stayed constant; the class associations inverted.

Manet's painting Olympia (1863) depicts a reclining nude wearing a black velvet choker and nothing else. The choker was the painting's most controversial detail — it identified the woman as a sex worker, not a classical goddess. The same ribbon around the neck that meant royalty for Alexandra meant commerce for Manet's model. No other piece of jewelry carries such contradictory class signals.