pluck

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English plukken, also ploken and plucken,^[2][3] inherited from Old English pluccian, also ploccian, to pluck, pull away, tear,^[4][5][6][7] inherited from Proto-Germanic *plukkōną,^[7] which Etymonline gives as Proto-West Germanic *plokken.^[6] It is cognate with West Frisian ploaitsje, Middle Dutch plocken, Middle Low German plocken, Dutch plukken, German pflücken, Old Norse plokka and Swedish plocka.^[5][6][8][9] Many dictionaries think the Germanic word was borrowed early from Vulgar Latin *piluccō (“to remove the hair”), the source of Old French peluchier (“to pluck”) and Italian piluccare, from Latin pilō (“to pull out hair”), from pilus (“hair”);^{[10][8][11][3][6]} Weekley linked the borrowing to the northern trade with Rome in down and feathers.^[12] The OED calls the further origin uncertain and only compares the Romance words,^[5] and Etymonline notes that it finds gaps in the evidence;^[6] Hoad calls the derivation from the Latin noun obscure.^[7] The noun is from the verb, first recorded as plukke about 1400.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pull off a fruit, hair or feather from where it grows, and to strip a bird of its feathers: both senses are in Old English, the first in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies.^[5][4] Barnhart dates the Old English verb to before 1000, with the senses "pull off, cull" and later "draw, snatch".^[3]

Semantic evolution

From pulling off, the verb came to mean taking hold of something and tugging at it (about 1330),^[5] and then pulling with sudden force, dragging or snatching (about 1400, in Piers Plowman).^[5] To pluck up, to summon up courage or heart, is recorded from about 1300;^[6] in Chaucer the verb is used with hertes for cheering up.^[13] Plucking the strings of an instrument, recorded by Etymonline in the late 14th century of the strings of a bow or harp,^[6] gave the musical sense of the modern verb, which the OED dates to 1873.^[5] In the 18th century the verb also came to mean rejecting a candidate in an examination,^[7] and the noun meant failing one (1852–88).^[5] From 1440 the noun pluck meant a pull or tug,^[5] and after 1611 also the heart, liver and lungs of a slaughtered animal,^[5][7] so called because they are plucked out of the carcass.^[7][11][6] Originally in boxing slang, this pluck came to mean courage, thought of as residing in the heart,^[5][14][15] first recorded in Grose's dictionary (1785);^[5][14] Etymonline thinks the sense was perhaps helped along by pluck up (one's courage).^[6] Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that women did not use the word before the 1860s and that 20th-century use is standard English.^[14] Geologists have used the verb since 1893 for glacier ice tearing away pieces of rock.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1000 – to pull off fruit, hair or feathers; to strip a bird of its feathers.^[5][3]
• c. 1300 – pluck up, to summon up courage.^[6]
• c. 1330 – to take hold of and pull or tug at.^[5]
• c. 1400 – to pull with sudden force, to snatch; noun, a pull or tug (Promptorium Parvulorum, 1440).^[5][6]
• c. 1450 – to shape the eyebrows by pulling out hairs.^[5]
• 1611 – noun, the heart, liver and lungs of an animal as food.^[5]
• 1785 – noun, courage, in boxing slang.^[5][14][6]
• 1852 – noun, failure in an examination (obsolete by 1888).^[5]
• 1873 – to sound the strings of an instrument with the fingers.^[5]
• 1893 – of glacier ice, to tear away pieces of rock.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pull off or pick something, such as a feather, fruit or flower, from where it grows: She plucked a pear from the tree.^[16][17][5]
2. To pull the feathers from a bird before cooking it.^[16][17][5]
3. To shape the eyebrows by pulling out hairs.^[17][5]
4. To pull or tug at something; to take hold of and pull sharply: The child plucked at his sleeve.^[16][5]
5. To sound the strings of a musical instrument with the fingers or a plectrum.^[16][5]
6. To take someone or something away suddenly or forcibly: The crew was plucked from the sea by a helicopter.^[16][5]
7. (slang) To swindle or fleece someone.^[16]
8. pluck up: to summon up one's courage.^[6][16]

Noun

1. Courage and determination, especially in the face of difficulty.^[16][17][5]
2. A sudden pull or tug.^[16][17][5]
3. The heart, liver and lungs of a slaughtered animal, as food.^[16][17][5]
4. (obsolete, 1499–1864) A bout or tussle; an attempt.^[5][17]

Word family

• plucker
• plucky

Related words

• plush
• pile
• depilatory

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster