Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a fool, an incompetent.

1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 66: ‘The berk.’ Jealousy and savage contempt blended in the Gilt Kid’s tone.
1942		G. Kersh Nine Lives Bill Nelson 43: Come and get a wash, you Burke.
1954		‘Nicholas Blake’ Whisper in the Gloom (1959) 187: ‘Where’s me glim?’ ‘In yer sky, yer silly berk.’.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: What do you think, you ignorant burk?
1962		F. Norman Guntz 6: Course it’s f . . . ing right you burk (I thought).
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 24: ‘I’m a star,’ said Mick. ‘You are a berk.’.
1968		J. Barlow Burden of Proof 112: He wasn’t going to be ballsed-up by a burke like Fletcher.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 62: Why the hell did you send me there, you great soft berk?
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 40: Yuh’ve stuck the soddin’ fing in the wrong ’ole, yuh burk!
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 308: This woman had never given the berk a second look.
1999		Indep. Rev. 4 Sept. 8: The biggest berk in rock music.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We Have No 317: be your own leader, you feeble burke.
2003		Observer Mag. 23 Nov. 8: The Queen Mother invited me to tea at Clarence House [...] Towards the end of the meal she said, ‘There are some expressions I have heard in the stables.’ I thought: Oh my God, what’s that? She said, ‘There’s one – the Berk.’ It’s the filthiest word in the English language. It comes from Berkeley Hunt. How can you explain that to the Queen Mum?
2012		R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 228: A fat berk sits on my lap.