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Etymology and origin of the English word poop

English has several words spelled poop: an imitative word for a short sound and, later, for breaking wind and defecating; the stern of a ship, from French; a slang word for inside information; and a verb meaning to tire out, the last two of uncertain origin.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

poop1 toot; excrement

Confidence
Established
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
c. 1390 Chaucer, Nun's Priest's Tale
From
Middle English poupen

Etymology

The sound word is inherited from Middle English poupen (“to blow a horn; to gulp when drinking”), of imitative origin.[1][5][2][6] The OED and the Shorter Oxford compare Middle Low German pūpen (“to break wind”), the source of pupen, and Dutch poepen (“to defecate”);[1][6] the noun has parallels in Low German pūp, German Pup, Dutch poep (“an act of breaking wind”) and Afrikaans poep.[1] The Middle English noun poupe was formed from the verb,[5][6] although the OED allows that the noun may be imitative in its own right.[1] Green's Dictionary of Slang explains the later senses as echoic of the report of a gun, and so of the sound of defecation.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a short blast of sound, as on a horn, or a gulping sound in drinking: about 1390, twice in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, where people blew and powped on horns of brass, box and bone in the Nun's Priest's Tale.[5][1][8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word imitated a sound, and the noun poupe (1440) was a hollow stick through which something was blown.[5][1] From the 16th century the noun was a toot on a wind instrument and also the report of a gun,[1][6] and poop was used as an interjection imitating a horn from before 1556.[1] From the late 17th century the verb meant to break wind,[1] a sense Bailey's dictionary of 1721 defined as "to break Wind backwards softly";[7][9] in nursery and slang use it then came to mean to defecate, a verb sense Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date from about 1903.[9][10][6] Etymonline dates the noun "excrement" to 1744, as a children's euphemism, but the OED's first record of the act of breaking wind or defecating, and of faeces, is from about 1890.[9][1] In Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Cornwall dialect the verb was used of and by children for defecating, and in the north a poop was a gulp in drinking.[11] A new military sense, to fire a gun, often with off or away, appeared during the First World War, in 1915.[1] Derivatives such as pooper-scooper (1970) belong to the excrement sense.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1390 – poupen, to make a gulping sound, to blow a horn, in Chaucer.[5][1]
  • 1440 – poupe, a hollow stick through which something is blown.[5][1]
  • before 1556 – interjection imitating a horn, in Udall's Ralph Roister Doister.[1]
  • c. 1565 – noun, a toot, a short blast of sound; also the report of a gun.[1]
  • 1689 – verb, to break wind.[1]
  • 1744 – noun, excrement, a children's euphemism.[9]
  • c. 1890 – noun, an act of breaking wind or of defecation; faeces.[1]
  • c. 1903 – verb, to defecate.[9][10]
  • 1915 – to fire a gun.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (informal) Excrement, faeces: The dog left poop on the lawn.[2][1]
  2. (informal) An act of defecating or of breaking wind.[2][1]
  3. A short, abrupt sound, such as a toot on a horn.[2][1]

Verb

  1. (informal) To defecate.[2][1]
  2. To break wind; to expel intestinal gas.[2][1]
  3. To fire a gun or shots, often with off or away.[2][1]
  4. To make a short, jarring sound; to toot.[2]

Interjection

  1. Imitating the toot of a horn, now especially a car horn.[1]

Word family

  • pooper
  • party pooper
  • pooper-scooper

poop2 stern of a ship

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1405–1410
Borrowed from
Middle French poupe via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin puppis

Etymology

The stern is inherited from Middle English poupe, also pope,[5][3] borrowed from Middle French poupe,[2][3][12] also spelled pupe and pope;[1][6] the French word is recorded from 1246,[1] and the Anglo-Norman poupe from 1409–11.[13] The OED, Hoad and Weekley trace it to an unattested Vulgar Latin *puppa,[1][14][15][16] an alteration of Latin puppis (“stern, poop”), perhaps after prōra (“prow”) or because of the feminine gender of the Latin word.[1][16] Etymonline and Klein instead bring the French word from Old Occitan poppa, and Etymonline also allows Italian poppa;[9][12] Barnhart and Skeat (after Hatzfeld) take it from the Italian word.[3][17] The Latin noun is of uncertain origin,[9][12][16] and also gave Spanish popa and Portuguese popa, as well as the Italian word.[12][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A raised structure at the stern of a ship: 1405–10, j Poupe, j fforcastell in naval accounts, in a vessel with a forecastle for the minstrels.[5][3] The OED's first record is from Caxton (1489), for the aftermost part of a ship.[1]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the stern or the high deck built over it, which often formed the roof of a cabin.[1][5] In the poop, of the wind, meant astern, and so figuratively favourable for progress (1567).[1] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the hindmost part of the ship", quoting Shakespeare's "The poop was beaten gold".[18] Slang transferred it to the human body: the buttocks or rump from 1611, a sense now American slang,[1] and, in Green's Dictionary of Slang, the vagina from 1594.[7] From 1670 it also named the constellation Puppis.[1] The verb, of a wave breaking over the stern, is recorded from 1727, or 1748 in Merriam-Webster,[1][10][3] and the compound poop deck by 1779.[9]

Timeline

  • 1405–10 – poupe, a raised structure at the stern.[5][3]
  • 1489 – the aftermost part of a ship, in Caxton.[1]
  • 1567 – in the poop, of the wind: astern.[1]
  • 1611 – the buttocks.[1]
  • 1670 – the constellation Puppis.[1]
  • 1727 – verb, of a wave: to break over the stern.[1]
  • 1779 – poop deck.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The stern of a ship, or the raised deck at the stern, especially of a sailing ship; a poop deck.[19][2][1][20]
  2. An enclosed superstructure at the stern above the main deck, built very high in ships of the 16th and 17th centuries.[2][1]

Verb

  1. Of a wave or the sea: to break over the stern of a vessel: A following sea pooped the yacht.[19][2][1]
  2. Of a vessel: to take a wave over the stern.[19][2]

Word family

  • poop deck
  • pooped

poop3 inside information

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1911 Howitzer, U.S. Military Academy

Etymology

The noun meaning inside information is of uncertain or unknown origin.[1][2][6][3] The OED notes that it seems to have begun at the US Military Academy at West Point, where a verb poop meant to learn by heart (1904) and to be able to quote word for word (1908).[1] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster suggest it comes from poop1, the excrement word,[9][10] and Green's Dictionary of Slang sees a figurative use of it, as a synonym of “shit”.[7] Dictionary.com takes it from “poop sheet”.[21]

Earliest recorded meaning

Up-to-date or inside information: 1911, in the West Point yearbook Howitzer.[1] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1941, as American army slang, in “poop sheet”.[3][9]

Semantic evolution

In 1941 a poop sheet was, in army slang, a drill schedule or any written announcement;[7][9] the noun spread through the armed forces in the Second World War and came to mean the facts or the latest news on a subject in general.[7][6]

Timeline

  • 1904 – West Point verb poop, to memorize completely.[1]
  • 1911 – noun, up-to-date or inside information.[1]
  • 1941 – poop sheet, a drill schedule or written announcement, in army slang.[7][9][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (slang, chiefly North American) Up-to-date or inside information; the facts: Ask the sergeant for the latest poop on the transfer.[2][6][1]

Word family

  • poop sheet

poop4 to tire out

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1927 American Speech

Etymology

The verb meaning to tire out is of unknown origin.[2][3][6][20] The OED calls it uncertain and compares poof.[1] Etymonline suggests that it imitates heavy breathing, comparing poop1,[9] and points to pooped in the nautical sense, overwhelmed by a wave from behind, which was used figuratively in the 1920s for overcome and defeated.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To break down or stop working, often with out: 1927, in American Speech.[1] Etymonline notes poop and poop out in 1920s aviation, of an engine that died.[9]

Semantic evolution

From the failing engine the verb passed to people: to tire or exhaust someone from 1931,[1][3][9] with pooped, exhausted, from 1928,[1] and poop out, to give up from exhaustion, by 1934.[9] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to about 1932 and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1927.[10][2] It began as American slang.[3][6]

Timeline

  • 1927 – to break down, stop working.[1][2]
  • 1928 – pooped, exhausted.[1]
  • 1931 – to tire, exhaust.[1][3][9]
  • 1934 – poop out.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (informal, chiefly North American) To make very tired; to exhaust, usually in the passive: The long climb pooped the whole group.[2][20][1]
  2. (informal) To stop working or give out, often with out: The old generator pooped out at midnight.[20][1][2]

Word family

  • pooped

Usage notes

Two minor words have the same spelling.[1] Poop, a fool or a bore, is recorded from 1893 and is probably short for nincompoop.[1][6][2] An obsolete verb poop, to deceive or cheat, was used from 1575 to 1669; its origin is unknown, and the Shorter Oxford compares Dutch poep (“clown”).[1][6][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ 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)
  12. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  17. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  19. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  20. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  21. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Poop.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/poop. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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