pool

English has two words spelled pool: the body of water, from Old English, and the stake in a game, from French poule; their association was probably helped by the identical sound.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /puːl/^[4]

pool¹ water

Etymology

The water is inherited from Middle English pol, pole,^[1] inherited from Old English pōl (“small body of water; deep, still place in a stream”),^[5][1] from Proto-West Germanic *pōl,^[5][2] the source also of Old Frisian and Middle Low German pōl, Dutch poel and German Pfuhl,^[5][1] which is of uncertain origin, perhaps a substrate word.^[5] Hoad relates it to Old English pyll “creek”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small body of standing water: about 897 in the OED,^[6] in Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care according to Barnhart.^[1] A deep still place in a river is from before 1000.^[6]

Semantic evolution

A small puddle of any liquid is from 1843,^[6] and an underground deposit of oil from 1902.^[6] The swimming pool is recorded from 1901 in Etymonline^[5] and 1921 in the OED and Barnhart, in Huxley's Crome Yellow.^[6][1] The verb, of liquid, “to form a pool”, is from the 1620s,^[5] and earlier, of land, “to be full of pools” (mid-15th century).^[5] Pool party is by 1965.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 897 – a body of standing water.^[6]
• mid-15th century – verb, to be full of pools.^[5]
• 1620s – to form a pool.^[5]
• 1901 – a swimming pool.^[5]
• 1902 – an oil deposit.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A small body of still water.
2. A small amount of standing liquid; a puddle.
3. A deep or still place in a stream.
4. A swimming pool.
5. An underground accumulation of petroleum or gas.

Verb

1. To form a pool or pools.
2. Of blood, to collect in a part of the body.

Word family

• poolside
• rockpool
• whirlpool
• cesspool

pool² stake, game

Etymology

The stake is borrowed from French poule (“stakes, booty, plunder”),^[5][1] a word of uncertain origin,^[5] probably the same as poule “hen”,^[1][2][7] from Old French poille.^[5] The early English spelling pooile (1610s) also suggests French peuille, a piece of a new coin cut off for assay.^[5] It is related to pullet.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A card game with collective stakes: 1693 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,^[1][7] the 1690s in Etymonline.^[5] The collective stakes themselves are recorded in Swift's Journal to Stella (1711–12).^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

The game like billiards is by 1808,^[5] first recorded in Thackeray in 1848 according to Barnhart,^[1] and was probably named from the stakes: unlike billiards it needed several players, each staking money.^[5] A common fund or stock shared by a group, as in typing pool and motor pool, is from 1869.^[1] A combination of businesses to control prices is 19th-century,^[2] and the verb “to put into a common fund” is from 1871.^[5] The football pools are a betting system on the results of matches.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 1693 – a card game with stakes.^[1][7]
• 1711–12 – the collective stake.^[1]
• 1808 – the game like billiards.^[5]
• 1869 – a common fund.^[1]
• 1871 – verb, to put into a common fund.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A game of billiards played on a table with six pockets.
2. The total amount staked in a game or bet.
3. A grouping of resources or people for common use: a car pool.
4. An agreement between businesses to control prices or share profits.

Verb

1. To put into a common fund or effort.

Word family

• carpool
• pool table

Related words

• puddle
• pullet
• poultry

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin