Etymologically
Log in

puke

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word puke

Pronunciation

puke1 woollen cloth

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1465
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch puuc via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Middle Dutch puuc

Etymology

The cloth is inherited from Middle English pewke, also puke,[2] borrowed from Middle Dutch puuc (“the best sort of cloth; the best kind”), also puyc,[3][2][4] related to Dutch puik (“choicest; excellent”) and West Frisian pûk.[3][2] Its further origin is unknown.[3][4] The OED compares Middle Low German pūk (“the best cloth”), probably from Dutch, and notes that early Dutch sources connect the making of the cloth with Delft.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A superior woollen cloth used for gowns, hose and other garments: 1465, in a household account.[3]

Semantic evolution

From 1510 puke, or puke colour, was also a dye for woollen goods, probably a very deep bluish black or dark brown;[3][4] the OED finds nothing like this sense in Dutch, and no link with puce, though that word named a similar range of colours.[3] In the 16th and early 17th centuries the word was also used as an adjective, "made of puke".[4] The cloth is not recorded after 1612 and the colour after 1725.[3]

Timeline

  • 1465 – a fine woollen cloth (to 1612).[3]
  • 1510 – a dark colour or dye for woollens (to 1725).[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (obsolete, 1465–1612) A fine woollen cloth used for gowns and hose.[3][4][2]
  2. (obsolete, 1510–1725) A dark bluish-black or brown colour or dye used for woollen goods.[3][4]

puke2 vomit

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1586 Hawking, Hunting and Fishing

Etymology

The word for vomiting is of uncertain origin, probably imitative of the sound.[3][5][6][7][8][9] Several dictionaries compare German spucken (“to spit”),[10][11][12][4][9] originally a regional word of the 16th century and related to speien (“to spew”),[3] and the OED and Word Origins also compare Dutch spugen (“to spit, vomit”), at first a regional variant of spuwen.[3][13] Klein and Weekley take it as standing for a form with initial s-, related to spew;[12][14] Weekley relates it ultimately to Latin spuō (“to spit”).[14] Partridge too thinks it is perhaps an altered derivative of spew, or simply echoic.[15] The derivative pukishness is recorded slightly earlier than the verb.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a hawk, to pass food from the crop to the stomach: 1586, in a book on hawking, hunting and fishing.[3] The sense "to vomit" is first found in 1600, in the "Seven Ages of Man" speech of Shakespeare's As You Like It: "Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms".[16][9][8][6]

Semantic evolution

The falconry sense died out by 1688.[3] The OED's first quotations for vomiting are from Holland's Pliny (1601, transitive) and Dekker and Webster (1607, intransitive).[3] From 1717 the verb also meant to give someone an emetic.[3] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to spew; to vomit" and the noun as vomit or a medicine causing it.[17] The noun is recorded from 1612 for an act of vomiting, from 1705 for the matter vomited,[3] and since 1729 for an emetic, a sense Etymonline dates to 1737.[3][16] In the United States from 1834 puke was a contemptuous word for a person and a nickname for a Missourian;[3][16] the OED and Etymonline think the nickname may have been a different word at first, and its motivation is unclear.[3][16] Later American military slang used it for a soldier, especially a career soldier (before 1966).[3] The SOED labels the word colloquial now.[4] It was also used in Scottish, Irish and northern English dialects.[18]

Timeline

  • 1586 – of a hawk, to pass food from the crop to the stomach (to 1688).[3]
  • 1600 – to vomit, in Shakespeare's As You Like It.[16][9][6]
  • 1601 – to bring up by vomiting.[3]
  • 1612 – noun, an act of vomiting.[3]
  • 1705 – vomit, the matter thrown up.[3]
  • 1717 – to give someone an emetic.[3]
  • 1729 – an emetic (to 1897).[3] Etymonline dates it to 1737.[16]
  • 1834 – a Missourian; a disgusting person.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (informal) To vomit: The seasick passenger puked over the rail.[10][2][3]
  2. (informal) To bring up food by vomiting, often with up.[2][3]

Noun

  1. (informal) Vomit.[10][2][3]
  2. (informal) An act of vomiting.[10][3]
  3. (slang) A disgusting or contemptible person.[2][3]
  4. (US, historical) A Missourian, used as a nickname.[2][3]
  5. (archaic) An emetic.[2][3][17]

Word family

  • pukey
  • spew

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  16. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

  • golf · also from Middle Dutch
  • grab · also from Middle Dutch
  • kit · also from Middle Dutch
  • clock · also from Middle Dutch
  • deck · also from Middle Dutch
  • hop · also from Middle Dutch
  • cant · also from Middle Dutch
  • brick · also from Middle Dutch
Cite this entry

“Puke.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/puke. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·