pogo

Etymology

The word is of unknown origin.^[2][3][4][5] According to Etymonline it was first a registered trademark, in Germany in 1919, perhaps made up from parts of the designers' names.^[6] Barnhart took it as a coinage, perhaps from pole and go, and notes that Pogo was patented in the United States in 1942 as a trademark for jumping sticks.^[7] The OED thinks it probably unrelated to Scots pogo, a child's toy in Orkney made of feathers tied together, and adds that even the place where the device was invented is uncertain, although some American sources of the time point to Britain.^[2] The verb is formed from the noun by conversion,^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins derive the dancing sense from pogo stick.^[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spring-loaded pole for jumping about on, and the verb to jump on one: both first recorded in the Glasgow Herald of 30 August 1921.^[2][7][8] A magazine of September 1921 reported that "France and especially Paris has taken to the 'pogo' stick".^[6]

Semantic evolution

The pogo stick was a craze in France, England and the eastern United States in the early 1920s, and according to Etymonline the fad came back in America from time to time.^[6] Barnhart notes a revival in the 1950s, perhaps helped by the comic strip Pogo, in phrases about "getting going", such as get on one's pogo stick, later shortened to get on the stick.^[7] From 1968 pogo was used of low-frequency lengthwise oscillations in a space rocket.^[9] In 1977 the word was applied to a punk-rock dance of leaping up and down on the spot, as a noun and a verb;^[2][6][8] the New Partridge records the dance in Britain from 1978.^[10] In Canada a pogo is also a battered, deep-fried hot dog on a stick, from a proprietary name,^[11][12] and in Australian slang it is a contemptible person, from rhyming slang.^[13]

Timeline

• 1921 – a spring-loaded pole for jumping, and the verb to jump on one; rarely also to cross a place on one.^[2][7]
• 1968 – low-frequency oscillation of a space rocket.^[9]
• 1977 – a punk dance of jumping up and down, as a noun and a verb.^[2][8][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pogo stick: a pole with a spring at the bottom and rests for the feet, on which a person jumps about.^[2][3][12]
2. A punk dance in which the dancers jump up and down on the spot.^[2][10][12]
3. (Canada) A battered, deep-fried hot dog served on a stick.^[11][12]
4. (Australia, slang) A contemptible person.^[13]

Verb

1. To jump on or as if on a pogo stick: The children pogoed down the driveway.^[2][3][12]
2. To dance the pogo, jumping up and down in one place.^[5][8][2]
3. (rare) To cross a place on a pogo stick.^[2]

Word family

• pogo stick
• pogoer

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
11. ^ a b Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
12. ^ a b c d e Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Toronto: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press