poll

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /pəʊl/, US /poʊl/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English polle, pol “head, hair of the head”, probably borrowed from Middle Low German polle (“head, top”) or Middle Dutch pol,^[2][3][4][5] probably related to Latin bulla “bubble”.^[3][4] The SOED notes that Old English poll in place names, perhaps “hill”, may first have meant “head”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The hair of the head, or the head of a person or animal: about 1290 in the OED, about 1300 in Barnhart.^[7][3] It is a surname from the late 12th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By the mid-14th century poll meant a person, an individual, as in by polls, one by one.^[2][3] From counting heads (1607, in Shakespeare's Coriolanus) came the collection of votes (1625, the 1620s in Etymonline).^[3][2] The voting at an election, and the place or time of voting, are from 1832,^[3][2] and a survey of public opinion from 1902.^[3][2] The verb meant to cut the hair (before 1300), to remove the top of a tree or the horns of cattle, and since 1625 to take the votes of;^[3][2][5] to receive a number of votes is by 1846.^[2] A poll tax, a head tax, is from the 1690s,^[2] and pollster is American, from 1939.^[3] A deed poll was cut straight, not indented.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – the head.^[7]
• before 1300 – to cut the hair.^[3]
• mid-14th century – an individual.^[2]
• 1625 – a collection of votes; to take votes.^[3]
• 1690s – poll tax.^[2]
• 1832 – voting at an election.^[3]
• 1902 – an opinion poll.^[3][2]
• 1939 – pollster.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An election, or the voting and counting of votes in one.
2. (the polls) The place where people vote.
3. A survey of public opinion on a question.
4. The number of votes cast.
5. (dialect) The head, or the top of the head.

Verb

1. To receive a number of votes.
2. To ask people's opinions in a survey.
3. To cut off the horns of cattle or the top of a tree.

Word family

• poller
• pollee
• pollable
• blackpoll
• outpoll
• pollbook
• pollster

Related words

• pollard
• polliwog
• tadpole
• poll tax
• deed poll

Usage notes

Poll, a parrot (Poll Parrot), is an alteration of Moll, a pet form of Mary,^[5][6] and the Poll, students reading for a pass degree, is from 1791.^[7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press