English
pool
Pool comes from Middle English pool, from Old English pōl ‘pool’, from Proto-Germanic *pōlaz ‘pool, pond’, of uncertain origin.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pōlaz‘pool’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pōlreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150pōl‘pool’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pool
- Englishearliest quotation 1610–1611same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pōlaz‘pool’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pōlreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150pōl‘pool’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pool
- Englishearliest quotation 1610–1611same form
Earliest quotation: 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest: “[…] at laſt I left them I’ th’ filthy…”
The story
For the meaning development to a supply of resources compare typologically Russian пруд пруди́ (prud prudí) (< пруд (prud)).
Linked words
through Old English pōl
Another origin of pool
- Frenchc. 1600–presentpoule‘collective stakes in a game’
- Englishtodaypool
The French word "poule" in this context is an abbreviation of "poulain, pouliche" (foal, filly), and referred to races with female horses under 3 years old. It then became used by punters to designate bets on that race, and started to be used from the racetrack to the stadiums. The OED suggests that this may be a transferred use of poule (‘hen’), which has been explained anecdotally as deriving from an old informal betting game in France - 'jeu de poule' - Game of Chicken (or Hen, literally) in which poule became synonymous with the combined money pot claimed by the winner.
Today it means
noun A small and rather deep area of (usually) fresh water, as one supplied by a spring, or occurring in the course of a stream or river; a reservoir for water.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *pōlaz / pool