Etymologically
Log in

poop

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 00:40. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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

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

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

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