English
pluck
Pluck may come from Middle English plucken.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English pluck, which cites OED
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden: “Indeed they seem to consider foreigners as strangers whom…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pluckenWiktionary, English pluck, which cites OEDuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1796pluckWiktionary, English pluck, which cites OED. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden: “Indeed they seem to consider foreigners as strangers whom…”
The story
From Middle English plucken, plukken, plockien, from Old English pluccian, ploccian (‘to pluck, pull away, tear’), also Old English plyċċan ("to pluck, pull, snatch; pluck with desire"), from Proto-West Germanic *plukkōn, from Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną (‘to pluck’), of uncertain and disputed origin.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it. Perhaps related to Old English pullian (‘to pull, draw; pluck off; snatch’). An alternative etymology suggests Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną may have been borrowed from an assumed Vulgar Latin *pilūc(i)cāre, a derivative of Latin pilāre (‘deprive of hair, make bald, depilate’), from pilus (‘hair’). The Oxford English Dictionary, however, finds difficulties with this and cites gaps in historical evidence.
Linked words
through Vulgar Latin *pilūc(i)cāre
Today it means
verb To pull something sharply; to pull something out
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “pluck”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Middle English plucken / pluck