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Etymology and origin of the English word pout

Pronunciation

pout1 fish

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Antwerp Glossary
Inherited from
Old English -pute
Ultimate origin
Old English -pūte

Etymology

The word for the fish is inherited from Old English -pūte, found in ǣlepūte, the eelpout;[2][3][4][5] Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary assume an unrecorded Middle English form *poute.[3][2][5] The OED treats it as apparently cognate with Middle Dutch puut (“frog”) (modern puit, rarely also a fish of the cod family) and aalpuit (“eelpout”), with no certain further etymology.[6][7] Several dictionaries connect it with the verb pout2, through a basic idea of swelling,[3][4][8][9] and Merriam-Webster and Klein compare Sanskrit बुद्बुद (budbuda, “bubble”);[3][1][4] Chambers suggests a reference to the inflatable membrane on the fish's head.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fish: Old English, in the Antwerp Glossary,[6] first in the compound eel-pout according to the Shorter Oxford.[11]

Semantic evolution

The name is used of several fishes, especially the bib or pouting, a small fish of the cod family, and of the eelpout.[6][11] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a kind of fish; a cod-fish".[12] In 1836 the naturalist W. Yarrell explained the names pout and bib by the fish's power of inflating a membrane about the head, a folk-etymological link with the verb that the OED notes.[6] In North America it names the bullheads, as in horned pout.[3][13]

Timeline

  • Old English – a fish, first in eel-pout.[6][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any of several fishes with large heads, such as a bullhead or an eelpout.[13][3]
  2. The bib or pouting, a small fish of the cod family.[3][6]

Word family

  • eelpout
  • hornpout
  • horned pout
  • ocean pout

pout2 push out the lips

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1335 Elde makiþ me, one of the Kildare poems
Inherited from
Middle English pouten

Etymology

The word for pushing out the lips is inherited from Middle English pouten,[14][15][2] of unknown or uncertain origin.[6][9][15][16] The Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart suggest a Scandinavian source,[14][15] comparing Swedish puta (“to be puffed out”) in Swedish dialects and Norwegian pute (“cushion, fat woman”).[14][15][9] The OED allows that it is either cognate with this Scandinavian base, as the reflex of an unrecorded Old English *pūtian, or borrowed from it, comparing also Danish pude (“cushion, pillow”), but notes that the Scandinavian parallels are mostly late and the link through a sense "to swell" is tenuous.[6] Hoad likewise proposes *pūtian, from a base meaning "to be inflated".[16] Etymonline and Barnhart also compare East Frisian Low German püt (“bag, swelling”) in East Frisian,[9][15] and Etymonline adds Low German puddig (“swollen”), tracing all these with the fish name pout1 to an imitative Proto-Indo-European *beu- suggesting swelling.[9] The OED finds probably no connection with similar Romance words for a pout,[6] although Etymonline and Weekley compare French bouder (“to pout”).[9][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

To push out the lips in displeasure or sullenness: about 1335, in the poem Elde makiþ me, where an old man complains "Now i pirtle, i pofte, i poute".[14][6] Barnhart dates the verb probably before 1325,[15] and Etymonline to the mid-14th century.[9]

Semantic evolution

By the late 15th century the verb was also used of the mouth or lips themselves, to swell out or protrude, and the Middle English Dictionary has pout oute for swelling or erupting.[6][14] The noun, a pouting expression, is recorded from 1591,[6][15][13] and in the pouts, in a sulky mood, from 1615.[6] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to look sullen by thrusting out the lips".[12] The transitive use, to push out the lips, followed in 1748, in Richardson's Clarissa, and to say something with a pout in 1854.[6] The OED's modern definition adds pouting to make oneself sexually attractive.[6] The derivative pouter named a breed of pigeon that puffs up its breast from 1725, and a person who pouts from 1809.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1335 – to push out the lips in displeasure.[6][14]
  • c. 1484 – of the lips, to swell out, protrude.[6][14]
  • 1591 – noun, a pouting expression.[6][15]
  • 1615 – in the pouts, in a sulky mood.[6]
  • 1748 – transitive, to push out the lips.[6]
  • 1854 – to say with a pout.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To push out the lips to show displeasure or sulkiness, or to look attractive: The toddler pouted when the swing was taken away.[3][18][6]
  2. To sulk.[3][13]
  3. Of the lips, to stick out; to protrude.[3][18][6]
  4. To push out the lips: She pouted her lips at the camera.[13][6]
  5. To say something with a pout.[18][6]

Noun

  1. A pushing out of the lips, especially to show displeasure.[3][18][6]
  2. the pouts: a fit of pique or sullenness.[3][18][6]

Word family

  • pouter
  • pouty
  • poutingly
  • poutful

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b 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 r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ a b c d e f g 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)
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  16. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  18. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pout.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pout. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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