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pooch

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Etymology and origin of the English word pooch

Pronunciation

pooch1 to bulge, protrude

Confidence
Probable
First attested
1746 Exmoor Scolding
Ultimate origin
Anglo-Norman puche
Etymology tree of pooch1
inherited borrowed derived
English pouch
English pooch

Etymology

The verb meaning to bulge is probably from English a variant of the verb pouch,[2][3][4] which is from the noun.[5][6] The Oxford Dictionary of English dates the verb to the mid 17th century.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pout or purse the lips: 1746, in the third edition of the Exmoor Scolding, a dialect text.[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb was long a dialect word: Wright's English Dialect Dictionary records pooch, a pouting of the lips, and the verb from Lancashire and Derbyshire to Devon and Cornwall, with pooch-mouth for a pouting mouth.[7] The sense of bulging or sticking out, usually with out, is first recorded in that dictionary in 1903,[2] and in American English the Dictionary of American Regional English finds it from 1902, in Maine, mostly in the South and South Midland, with the adjective pooched (out), swollen or puckered.[3] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to about 1923 and labels it chiefly dialect.[8]

Timeline

  • 1746 – to pout or purse the lips.[2]
  • 1902 – to bulge or swell, usually with out.[3][2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (chiefly dialect) To bulge or stick out, usually with out: His cheeks pooched out as he blew on the fire.[8][3][2]
  2. To pout or purse the lips.[2][7]

pooch2 dog

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1908 San Francisco Examiner

Etymology

The word for a dog is of unknown origin.[2][4][9][10][11][12] One popular explanation, which the OED records without accepting it, derives it from German Putzi, a term of endearment and a common name for pets,[2][13] itself from putzig (“cute”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dog, especially a mongrel: 1908, in the San Francisco Examiner,[2][4] and in the same year in a comic strip by Bud Fisher.[13] Etymonline dates the common noun to 1917,[5] and Barnhart to 1924, in Ben Hecht's Cutie.[10]

Semantic evolution

Before it was a common noun, Pooch was a name for individual dogs: Etymonline finds it in 1901, for a Klondike pioneer's Eskimo dog,[5] and the OED in 1906, for a baseball player's pup.[2] The word is American and slangy,[10][13] and Green's Dictionary of Slang records poochie as a variant.[13] In American football a pooch kick, from 1978, is a short kick aimed at the opposing linemen rather than the designated receiver,[2] and the verb pooch, to make such a kick, is recorded from 1983.[2] The phrase screw the pooch, to make a disastrous mistake, is a euphemism for an older soldiers' phrase about a dog, and became widely known through Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff (1979).[14]

Timeline

  • 1908 – a dog, especially a mongrel.[2][4][13]
  • 1978 – of a short kick in American football.[2]
  • 1983 – verb, to make such a kick.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (slang) A dog: He takes his pooch to the park every morning.[4][11][9][2]

Verb

  1. (American football) To kick the ball a short distance towards the opposing linemen rather than to the receiver.[2]

Word family

  • poochie

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "screw the pooch / fuck the dog", 18 October 2021
Cite this entry

“Pooch.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pooch. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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