pool | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

61 entries found.

"to cheat," early 1900s, from snooker (n.). Related: Snookered; snookering.

One of the great amusements of this game is, by accuracy in strength, to place the white ball so close behind a pool ball that the next player cannot hit a pyramid ball, he being "snookered" from all of them. If he fail to strike a pyramid ball, this failure counts one to the adversary. If, however, in attempting to strike a pyramid ball off a cushion, he strike a pool ball, his adversary is credited with as many points as the pool ball that is struck would count if pocketed by rule. [Maj.-Gen. A.W. Drayson, "The Art of Practical Billiards for Amateurs," 1889]

Amritsar

city in Punjab, from Sanskrit amrta "immortal" (from a- "not," from PIE root *ne-, + mrta "dead," from PIE root *mer- "to rub away, harm") + saras "lake, pool."

mill-pond (n.)

"reservoir of water behind a dam used for driving a mill-wheel," 1690s, from mill (n.1) + pond. Old English had mylen pol "mill-pool."

tank top (n.)

1968, from tank suit "one-piece bathing costume" (1920s), so called because it was worn in a swimming tank (n.), i.e. pool.

Kelly

common Irish surname, from Old Irish ceallach "war." As a type of pool played with 15 balls, it is attested from 1898. Kelly green first recorded 1917.

lake (n.1)

"body of water surrounded by land and filling a depression or basin," early 12c., from Old French lack (12c., Modern French lac) and directly from Latin lacus "pond, pool, lake," also "basin, tank, reservoir" (related to lacuna "hole, pit"), from PIE *laku- "body of water, lake, sea" (source also of Greek lakkos "pit, tank, pond," Old Church Slavonic loky "pool, puddle, cistern," Old Irish loch "lake, pond"). The common notion is "basin."

There was a Germanic form of the PIE root which yielded Old Norse lögr "sea flood, water," Old English lacu "stream, pool, pond," lagu "sea flood, water, extent of the sea," leccan "to moisten" (see leak (v.)). In Middle English, lake, as a descendant of the Old English word, also could mean "stream; river gully; ditch; marsh; grave; pit of hell," and this might have influenced the form of the borrowed word.

*mori-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "body of water."

It forms all or part of: aquamarine; Armorica; beche-de-mer; cormorant; mare (n.2) "broad, dark areas of the moon;" marina; marinate; marine; mariner; maritime; marsh; mere (n.1) "lake, pool;" Merlin; mermaid; merman; meerschaum; meerkat; morass; Muriel; rosemary; submarine; ultramarine; Weimar.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin mare; Old Church Slavonic morje, Russian more, Lithuanian marės, Old Irish muir, Welsh mor "sea;" Old English mere "sea, ocean; lake, pool," German Meer "sea."

Bethesda

1857, name of a pool in Jerusalem (John v.2), from Greek Bethesda, from Aramaic (Semitic) beth hesda "house of mercy," or perhaps "place of flowing water." Popular among some Protestant denominations as a name for religious meeting houses.

dimple (n.)

c. 1400, "natural transient small dent in some soft part of the human body," especially that produced in the cheek of a young person by the act of smiling, perhaps from an Old English as a word meaning "pothole," perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dumpilaz, which has yielded words in other languages meaning "small pit, little pool" (such as German Tümpel "pool," Middle Low German dümpelen, Dutch dompelen "to plunge").

In place-names from c. 1200; as a surname from late 13c. Meaning "slight indentation or impression in any surface" is from 1630s. Related: Dimples.

ante (n.)

in the game of poker, "stake of money placed in a pool by each player before drawing cards," 1838, American English poker slang, apparently from Latin ante "before" (from PIE root *ant- "front, forehead," with derivatives meaning "in front of, before"). From 1846 as a verb.

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