"ice hockey disk," by 1891, of uncertain origin, possibly from puck (v.) "to hit, strike" (1861), which perhaps is related to poke (v.) via notion of "push." Another suggestion traces the noun to Irish poc "bag."
The bone of contention between the contending sides is called the puck, and is a circular piece of vulcanized rubber one inch thick all through and three inches in diameter. ["The Game of Rink Hockey," in Harper's Young People, Feb. 3, 1891]
name of the mischievous fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," in 16c. the name of a fairy of high repute (his disguised name was Robin Goodfellow or Friar Rush), also generally, "an elf, fairy, or sprite;" probably from Middle English pouke "devil, evil spirit" (c. 1300; early 13c. in place-names), from Old English puca, pucel "goblin," which is cognate with Old Norse puki "devil, fiend," a word of unknown origin (compare pug). Celtic origins also have been proposed.
1726, "a drawing or gathering into folds or wrinkles," from pucker (v.). In 18c.-19c. sometimes also in a figurative sense, "state of agitation, condition of excitement" (1741).
1590s, intransitive, "become irregularly ridged or wrinkled," possibly a frequentative form of pock, dialectal variant of poke "bag, sack" (see poke (n.1)), which would give it the same notion as in purse (v.). OED writes that it was "prob. earlier in colloquial use." "Verbs of this type often shorten or obscure the original vowel; compare clutter, flutter, putter, etc." [Barnhart]. Transitive sense of "draw up or contract into irregular folds or wrinkles" is from 1610s. Related: Puckered; puckering.
slang for "penis," 1939 (in James Joyce), according to OED and DAS from pudding (q.v.) in the same slang sense (1719), an extended use from the original "sausage" meaning of that word.
"hand, paw, fist," 1650s, "a nursery word," according to OED. It has been compared to Dutch poot "paw;" see paw (n.).
c. 1300, "a kind of sausage: the stomach or one of the entrails of a pig, sheep, etc., stuffed with minced meat, suet, blood, and seasoning, boiled and kept till needed," perhaps from a West Germanic stem *pud- "to swell" (source also of Old English puduc "a wen," Westphalian dialect puddek "lump, pudding," Low German pudde-wurst "black pudding," English dialectal pod "belly;" also see pudgy).
The other possibility is the traditional one [also in Middle English Compendium] that it is from Old French boudin "sausage," from Vulgar Latin *botellinus, from Latin botellus "sausage" (the proposed change of French b- to English p- presents difficulties, but compare purse (n.)).
The sense of "dish consisting of flour, milk, eggs, etc., originally boiled in a bag until semi-hard, often enriched with raisins or other fruit" had emerged by 1670, from extension to other foods boiled or steamed in a bag or sack (16c.). German pudding, French pouding, Swedish pudding, Irish putog are from English. Pudding-pie as a type of pastry, especially one with meat baked in it, is attested from 1590s.
