pool

Meanings

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.
• Any small body of standing or stagnant water; a puddle.
• A supply of resources.
• A set of resources that are kept ready to use.
• A small amount of liquid on a surface.
• A localized glow of light.
• 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.
• A cue sport played on a pool table. There are 15 balls, 7 of one colour, 7 of another, 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.
• 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.
• A group of fencers taking part in a competition.
• Any gambling or commercial venture in which several persons join.
• 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.
• 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.
• A set of players in quadrille etc.
• A mutual arrangement between competing lines, by which the receipts of all are aggregated, and then distributed pro rata according to agreement.
• An aggregation of properties or rights, belonging to different people in a community, in a common fund, to be charged with common liabilities.

Verb

• To form a pool.
• 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.
• To combine or contribute with others, as for a commercial, speculative, or gambling transaction.

Origin

• From Middle English pool, pole, pol, from Old English pōl, from Proto-Germanic *pōlaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bōlos. Cognate with Scots puil, Saterland Frisian Pol, West Frisian poel, Dutch poel, Low German Pohl, Pul, German Pfuhl, Danish pøl, Swedish pöl, Icelandic pollur, Lithuanian bala, Latvian bala, Russian боло́то.
• From French poule. The OED suggests that this may be a transferred use of poule, 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.