Etymograph

English

pool

Pool comes from Middle English pool, from Old English pōl ‘pool’, from Proto-Germanic *pōlaz ‘pool, pond’, of uncertain origin.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pōlaz1‘pool’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pōl1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150pōl1‘pool’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pool1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1610–1611pool1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English pool
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest: “[…] at laſt I left them I’ th’ filthy…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pōlazWiktionary, English pool‘pool’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pōlWiktionary, English poolreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150pōlWiktionary, English pool‘pool’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500poolWiktionary, English pool
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1610–1611poolWiktionary, English pool. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Old English pōl

poll, 1 more

Another origin of pool

  1. Frenchc. 1600–presentpoule‘collective stakes in a game’
  2. 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.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “pool”. 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 / Proto-Germanic *pōlaz / pool

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