pool - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English pool, pole, pol, from Old English pōl (“pool”), from Proto-West Germanic pōl, from Proto-Germanic *pōlaz (“pool, pond”), from Proto-Indo-European *bōlos (“bog, marsh”).

Cognate with Scots puil (“pool”), Saterland Frisian Pol (“pool”), West Frisian poel (“pool”), Dutch poel (“pool”), German Low German Pohl, Pool, Pul (“pool”), German Pfuhl (“quagmire, mudhole”), Danish pøl (“puddle”), Swedish pöl (“puddle, pool”), Icelandic pollur (“puddle”), Lithuanian bala (“puddle”), Latvian bala (“a muddly, treeless depression”), Russian боло́то (bolóto, “swamp, bog, marsh”).

For the meaning development to a supply of resources compare typologically Russian пруд пруди́ (prud prudí) (< пруд (prud)).

A pool (as one supplied by a spring or occurring in the course of a stream)

pool (plural pools)

  1. 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.
    the pools of Solomon
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 15, column 2:
      […] at laſt I left them
      I’ th’ filthy mantled poole beyond your Cell,
      There dancing vp to th’ chins, that the fowle Lake
      Ore-ſtunck their feet.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Marriage And Single Life. VIII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 37:
      A Single Life doth well with Church-men : For Charitie will hardly water the Ground, where it muſt firſt fill a Poole.
    • 1833, Alfred Tennyson, “The Miller's Daughter”, in Poems, 5th edition, Edward Moxon, published 1848, page 86:
      I loved the brimming wave that swam
      Thro’ quiet meadows round the mill,
      The sleepy pool above the dam,
      The pool beneath it never still,
      The meal-sacks on the whiten’d floor,
      The dark round of the dripping wheel,
      The very air about the door
      Made misty with the floating meal.
  2. Any small body of standing or stagnant water; a puddle.
  3. Ellipsis of swimming pool.
  4. (by extension, computing) A set of resources that are kept ready to use.
  5. (by extension) Any group of like things.
  6. A small amount of liquid on a surface.
    a pool of blood
  7. A localized glow of light.
    • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:
      He walked slowly, passing through one pool of light after another, his shadow running tall across the fronts of the barber shop, the Western Auto, the video-rental shop.

body of water

small body of standing or stagnant water; a puddle

supply of resources

pool (third-person singular simple present pools, present participle pooling, simple past and past participle pooled)

  1. (intransitive, of a liquid) To form a pool.

1. From French poule (“collective stakes in a game”). 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.

2. 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.

pool (plural pools)

  1. A supply of resources.
    • 1962 June, Rupert Shervington, “The planning and execution of the Kent Coast electrification”, in Modern Railways, page 390:
      The 4-BEP and 4-CEP stock is maintained in a common pool for both Chatham and South Eastern fast main-line services.
    1. A number of people when considered as a resource.
      dating pool
      There is a limited pool of candidates from which to choose the new manager.
      • 2020 October 15, Alana Semuels, “Workers Who Were Laid Off Say They're Being Passed Over—For Their Own Jobs”, in TIME‎[1], archived from the original on 4 November 2020:
        This is not necessarily surprising; employers often use recessions to pay new workers less because they have such a large pool of potential applicants to choose from, says Ruth Milkman, the Labor Studies Chair at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies.
  2. (games, uncountable) A game at billiards, in which each of the players stakes a certain sum, the winner taking the whole; also, in public billiard rooms, a game in which the loser pays the entrance fee for all who engage in the game.
  3. (sports) A cue sport played on a pool table. There are 15 balls, 7 of one colour or solids, 7 of another color or stripes, and the black ball (also called the 8 ball). A player must pocket all their own colour balls and then the black ball in order to win.
  4. In rifle shooting, a contest in which each competitor pays a certain sum for every shot he makes, the net proceeds being divided among the winners.
  5. (fencing) A group of fencers taking part in a competition.
    Synonym: poule
  6. (rugby union) A set of teams playing each other in the same division, while not during the same period playing any teams that belong to other sets in the division.
    Synonym: group
  7. Any gambling or commercial venture in which several persons join.
  8. The stake played for in certain games of cards, billiards, etc.; an aggregated stake to which each player has contributed a share; also, the receptacle for the stakes.
  9. A combination of persons contributing money to be used for the purpose of increasing or depressing the market price of stocks, grain, or other commodities; also, the aggregate of the sums so contributed.
    The pool took all the wheat offered below the limit.
    He put $10,000 into the pool.
  10. A set of players in quadrille etc.
  11. (rail transport) A mutual arrangement between competing lines, by which the receipts of all are aggregated, and then distributed pro rata according to agreement.
  12. (law) An aggregation of properties or rights, belonging to different people in a community, in a common fund, to be charged with common liabilities.

cue sport played on a pool table

type of contest in rifle shooting

any gambling or commercial venture in which several persons join

stake played for in certain games; aggregated stake

combination of persons contributing to increasing or depressing market prices

set of players in quadrille

rail transport: mutual arrangement between competing lines

legal: aggregation of properties or rights

pool (third-person singular simple present pools, present participle pooling, simple past and past participle pooled)

  1. (transitive) To put together; contribute to a common fund, on the basis of a mutual division of profits or losses; to make a common interest of.
    We must pool our resources.
    • 1920, Frank L. Packard, chapter 4, in The White Moll:
      “She must be exceedingly clever to have beaten the police the way she has for the last few years; and—er—I worship at the shrine of cleverness—especially if it be a woman’s. The idea struck me last night that if she and I should—er—pool our resources, we should not have to complain of the reward.”
      “Oh, so youse wants to work wid her, eh?” sniffed Rhoda Gray. “So dat’s it, is it?”
    • 2007 November, Elizabeth Drake, “Combine and conquer: Use these winning food pairings to protect your health”, in Men's Health, volume 22, number 9, →ISSN, page 124:
      It all started 6 years ago, as Rutgers University scientists Allan Conney, Ph.D., and George C. Wagner, Ph.D., chatted at an office get-together. […] From this conversation, the two decided to pool their knowledge and join forces.
    • 27 February 2010, Barack Obama, Presidential Weekly Address - Time for Us to Act
      Many on both sides agreed that we should give small businesses and individuals the ability to participate in a new insurance marketplace – which members of Congress would also use – that would allow them to pool their purchasing power and get a better deal from insurance companies.
  2. (intransitive) To combine or contribute with others, as for a commercial, speculative, or gambling transaction.

to put together

to combine or contribute with others

From Latin polus, which itself is from Ancient Greek πόλος (pólos, “axis”). Cognate with English pole.

pool c (plural polen, diminutive pooltje n)

  1. magnetic pole (especially of the Earth and other celestial bodies)
  2. electrical pole (e.g. of a battery)
  3. (figuratively) an opposing side of a principle or a doctrine

From English pool.

pool m (plural pools, diminutive pooltje n)

  1. a gambling venture such as a football pool
  2. the stake involved in such a venture
  3. an arrangement where people pool in money to share one resource such as a carpool
  4. (sports) pool

From Middle Dutch pool, from Old French poil, from Latin pilus (“hair”). Cognate with English pile.

pool c (plural polen, diminutive pooltje n)

  1. the pile (upstanding usually fine hair) on certain fabrics, velvet or carpeting

Estonian numbers (edit)

| | 20 | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | 2 | 3 → | | Cardinal: kaks Ordinal: teine Multiplier: kahekordne Distributive: kahekaupa, paarikaupa Collective adverbial: kahekesi Fractional: pool | |

From Proto-Finnic *pooli, from Proto-Uralic *pälä. Cognates include Finnish puoli (“half, side”), Northern Mansi па̄л (pāl, “half, side”), Hungarian fél (“half”).

pool (genitive poole, partitive poolt)

  1. half
  2. side
    tagumine pool ― back side
    koledam pool ― the ugly side
Declension of pool (ÕS type 13/suur, length gradation)
singular plural
nominative pool pooled
accusative nom.
gen. poole
genitive poolte
partitive poolt pooli
illative pooldepoolesse pooltessepoolisse
inessive pooles pooltespoolis
elative poolest pooltestpoolist
allative poolele pooltelepoolile
adessive poolel pooltelpoolil
ablative poolelt poolteltpoolilt
translative pooleks pooltekspooliks
terminative pooleni poolteni
essive poolena pooltena
abessive pooleta poolteta
comitative poolega pooltega

The nonstandard plural partitive poolesid is somewhat common in colloquial use.

Spatial inflection of pool

↗︎○ allative poole
○ adessive pool
○↘︎ ablative poolt

pool

  1. at, to, towards
    minu pool ― at my place
    põhja pool ― to the north, in the north
    igal pool ― everywhere

Borrowed from Middle Low German spōle, from Old Saxon spōla, from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *spōlǭ.

pool (genitive pooli, partitive pooli)

  1. bobbin, coil

Declension of pool (type paks)

pool m (plural pools)

  1. pool (sport)

pool

  1. alternative form of pooli
Declension of pool (type 5/keeli, no gradation)
singular plural
nominative pool poolet
genitive poolen pooliin, pooliloin
partitive poolta, poolt poolia, pooliloja
illative poolee poolii, pooliloihe
inessive poolees pooliis, poolilois
elative poolest poolist, pooliloist
allative poolelle poolille, pooliloille
adessive pooleel pooliil, pooliloil
ablative poolelt poolilt, pooliloilt
translative pooleks pooliks, pooliloiks
essive poolenna, pooleen poolinna, pooliloinna, pooliin, pooliloin
exessive1) poolent poolint, pooliloint
1) obsolete *) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka? or -kä? to the genitive.

pool

  1. large fire (which causes damage)

pool

  1. alternative form of pol

pool

  1. fire

pool m (plural pooles)

  1. pool (sport)

Since 1968; from English pool, related to Swedish pöl (“small water pool, usually on the road when it's raining”).

pool c

  1. a swimming pool

pool

  1. alternative form of pooli

pool

  1. half
Declension of pool (type X/tuli, no gradation)
singular plural
nominative pool, pooli poolõd
genitive poolõ poolijõ
partitive pooltõ pooliit
illative poolõ, poolõsõ pooliisõ
inessive poolõz pooliiz
elative poolõss pooliiss
allative poolõllõ pooliillõ
adessive poolõll pooliill
ablative poolõlt pooliilt
translative poolõssi pooliissi
*) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the terminative is formed by adding the suffix -ssaa to the short illative (sg) or the genitive. ***) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka to the genitive.For dialectal differences between case endings, see Appendix:Votic dialects.

pool

  1. head