Etymologically
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pot

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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

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (informal) marijuana.
  • 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