poultice

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pultes, with a later change of spelling,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Medieval Latin pultēs (“mixtures of meal used as poultices”),^[6][7][8] the plural of Latin puls (“thick pap, pottage, porridge”),^{[6][3][2][4][9]} probably taken as a singular in post-classical Latin because of its collective meaning,^[6] and likewise in English.^[10][5][7] The OED thinks the Latin noun is perhaps from Ancient Greek πόλτος (póltos, “porridge”), itself of uncertain origin.^[6] Skeat instead went through Middle French pulte (“a poultice”),^[11] but the OED finds no such French word until considerably later, in Cotgrave in 1611.^[6] The OED compares the variation of the ending with lattice and prentice,^[6] and Barnhart wonders whether the later vowel spelling owes something to poultry.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A soft, moist mass applied to the skin: the OED's first record is in a Middle English translation of Lanfranc's surgery, before 1400,^[6][7] where the term is distinguished as a mixture of meal, water and oil without herbs.^[7] Barnhart dates pultes to 1392.^[2][12] Other dictionaries give the 15th or the 16th century.^[4][13][5]

Semantic evolution

Plain pultes was at first a term of medicine, and the plural could still be used as a singular.^[7] The modern shape appears in the 16th century: Skeat cites pultesses from Gascoigne,^[11] Barnhart poultesse from Romeo and Juliet (1592) and poultice from 1611,^[2] and Etymonline says the modern form predominated only from the mid 18th century.^[3] The verb is recorded from 1644,^[6][4] though Barnhart dates it to 1730 and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 18th century,^[2][9] and Johnson (1755) lists it as "to apply a poultice".^[14] Slang took up the word: in British use a high stiff collar in 1840 and, by Ware's account, a fat woman around 1880,^[15] and in Australia a large sum of money or a bribe from 1902, and a mortgage from 1932.^[6][15] In Cumberland dialect a poultice of o' maks, not a compound as the name suggests, was made of cow-dung.^[16] Merriam-Webster has a technical verb too, to apply a mudcap to an explosive or a rock surface before blasting.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1400 – pultes, a soft mass applied to the skin.^[6][7]
• 1592 – the spelling poultesse, in Romeo and Juliet.^[2]
• 1611 – the spelling poultice.^[2]
• 1644 – verb, to apply a poultice to.^[6][4]
• 1840 – in British slang, a high stiff collar.^[15]
• 1902 – in Australian slang, a large sum of money or a bribe.^[6][15]
• 1932 – in Australian slang, a mortgage.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soft, moist, usually heated mass of bran, meal, clay or the like, spread on cloth and put on the skin to ease pain or inflammation; a cataplasm: The farrier held a bran poultice to the horse's hoof.^[4][13][6]
2. (Australian slang) A large sum of money, especially a bribe or a debt.^[6][13][17]
3. (Australian slang) A mortgage.^[6][9][17]

Verb

1. To apply a poultice to; to dress with a poultice.^[4][6][14]
2. To apply a mudcap to an explosive or a rock surface before blasting.^[4]

Related words

• pulse

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f 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)
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press