Etymograph

English

pole

Pole comes from Middle English pole ‘pole, stake, staff’, and goes back to Latin pālus.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpālus‘stake, pale, prop, stay’
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pālu‘pole, stake’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*pālreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150pāl‘a pole, stake, post’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pole‘pole, stake, staff’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1913pole

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpālus‘stake, pale, prop, stay’
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pālu‘pole, stake’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*pālreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150pāl‘a pole, stake, post’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pole‘pole, stake, staff’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1913pole

Earliest quotation: 1913, Joseph Crosby Lincoln, New York: “For a spell we done pretty well. Then there…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- ‘to nail, fasten’

page, propaganda, compact, peasant, pagan, propagate, pala, pectin, impinge, pagination, impactor, 29 more

through Latin pālus ‘stake, pale, prop, stay’

travel, peel, pale, palisade, travail, 22 more

Another origin of pole

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷel-root as named
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷól-osreconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*pólosreconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπόλοςpólos‘axis of rotation’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpolus
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600pole
  7. Englishtodaypole

Today it means

noun Originally, a stick; now specifically, a long and slender piece of metal or (especially) wood, used for various construction or support purposes.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin pālus / pole

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