pot

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /pɒt/, US /pɑːt/^[1]

pot¹ container

Etymology

The container is inherited from Middle English pot, inherited from Old English pott, reinforced in Middle English by Old French pot.^[2][3][4] Both are from Vulgar Latin *pottus, of uncertain origin.^[2][5][3] Barnhart and the OED doubt a connection with Late Latin pōtus “drinking cup”.^[5][2] Old Frisian pott and Middle Dutch pot are related.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A round vessel used as a container, before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle,^[2][7] and especially for cooking from before 1300.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A drinking vessel for beer or wine is from about 1440, and a flowerpot and a chamber pot from 1598.^[7] Go to pot, to be ruined, is from the 1530s and probably pictures meat cut up for the pot.^[8][5] The money staked on a bet is from 1823, and the stakes in a card game from 1847 in American English.^[5] A silver cup won as a prize is from 1885, and a pot belly from 1928.^[7] The verb, to put in a pot, is from the 1610s, and to shoot game, “for the pot”, from 1860; hence potshot.^[5][8] In northern England dialect a pot is a deep hole in a river bed or in limestone, which may be the same word or Scandinavian.^[9][3]

Timeline

• before 1200 – a vessel.^[2]
• c. 1440 – a drinking pot.^[7]
• 1530s – go to pot.^[5]
• 1598 – a flowerpot.^[7]
• 1823 – money staked.^[5]
• 1928 – a pot belly.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A round, deep container for cooking or storing things.
2. A flowerpot, teapot or similar container.
3. (the pot) The total money bet in one round of a card game.
4. (informal) A large sum of money, or a prize cup in sport.
5. (informal) A potbelly.

Verb

1. To plant in a pot.
2. To preserve food in a pot or jar.
3. To shoot an animal, or hit a ball into a pocket in billiards or snooker.

pot² marijuana

Etymology

Marijuana is probably shortened borrowed from Spanish potiguaya (“marijuana leaves”), a Mexican Spanish word.^[2][5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marijuana, in American English: 1938.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Pothead, a person who smokes marijuana, is a mid-20th-century compound.^[9]

Timeline

• 1938 – marijuana.^[2][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (informal) marijuana.

Related words

• potter
• pottery
• potluck
• potshot
• pothole

Usage notes

Pot, a potshot or in Australian and New Zealand rugby a dropped goal, is from the late 19th century, a shortening of potshot.^[9] Pot, short for potentiometer, is from the mid-20th century.^[9]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press