Etymologically
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poll

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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
  • 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