polo English · revision 39800

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1872, Daily News|origins=bft polo}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * UK: /ˈpəʊ.ləʊ/, /ˈpəʊl.əʊ/^(Wiktionary)

+ * US: /ˈpoʊloʊ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|bft|polo|t=ball]],^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(AHD 2024) from Balti, a Tibetan language of the upper Indus valley in Kashmir,^(Etymonline)^(Ayto 2005)^(Weekley 1921) which English first knew as an Anglo-Indian word.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) The OED compares Lhasa Tibetan [[m|bo|pulu]] and the related words for a ball in other Tibetan varieties,^(OED 2026)^(AHD 2024) and Klein also compares Tibetan ''pulu''.^(Klein 1966) The Shorter Oxford instead gives a Tibetan [[m|bo|pholo]], literally "ball game".^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A team game resembling hockey, played on horseback with long-handled mallets and a ball: 1872, in the ''Daily News''.^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)^(Barnhart 1988) Dictionary.com dates the word to 1835–45.^(Dictionary.com 2016) Ayto relates that English travellers in Kashmir saw the game in the 1840s,^(Ayto 2005) and Etymonline and Weekley note that it was first played in England at Aldershot in 1871.^(Etymonline)^(Weekley 1921)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Etymonline describes it as an ancient game in South Asia.^(Etymonline) In Balti the word named the wooden ball, and the English took it over for the whole game.^(Ayto 2005)^(Skeat 1911) It soon spread to similar team games: ''water polo'' is recorded from 1876,^(Etymonline) and the general sense of a game resembling or derived from horseback polo, as on bicycles, from 1883.^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024) A ''polo shirt'' was at first one worn by polo players;^(Etymonline) Etymonline dates the term to 1892, while Barnhart finds it first in F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''This Side of Paradise'' (1920).^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) The word was used for a polo hat from 1905, and since 1967 also for a polo-neck sweater or a polo shirt.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1871 – first game in England, at Aldershot.^(Etymonline)^(Weekley 1921)

+ * 1872 – the horseback game.^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)

+ * 1876 – ''water polo''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1883 – any similar team game.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1892 – ''polo shirt''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1905 – a polo hat.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1967 – a polo-neck sweater or polo shirt.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A game played on [[horseback]] by two teams, in which the players drive a small ball into the goal with long-handled [[mallet|alt=mallets]].^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # Any of several similar games, such as one played on [[bicycle|alt=bicycles]]; also short for [[water polo]].^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # (chiefly British) A [[polo neck]] or a sweater with one; also a polo shirt.^(Collins 2023)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[poloist]]

+ * [[polo-neck]]

+ * [[polo pony]]

+ * [[polo shirt]]

+ * [[water polo]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[chukker]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ A separate word ''polo'', from Spanish and of unknown origin, names an Andalusian flamenco song and the dance performed to it, recorded in English from about 1830.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}