puck

See also: Puck

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: pŭk, IPA^(key): /pʌk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /pʊk/
• Rhymes: -ʌk

Etymology 1

From Middle English pouke, from Old English pūca (“goblin, demon”), from Proto-West Germanic *pūkō, from Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), of uncertain origin.

Cognate with Old Norse púki (“devil”) (dialectal Swedish puke). Doublet of pooka.

Noun

puck (plural pucks)

1. (now rare) A mischievous or hostile spirit. [from 10th c.]
   • 2017, Ronald Hutton, The Witch, Yale University Press, published 2018, page 232:

     William Tyndale allotted this character a role, of leading nocturnal travellers astray as the puck had been said to do since Anglo-Saxon times and the goblin since the later medieval period.

Synonyms

• See goblin (hostile) and fairy (mischievous)

Derived terms

• puckish

Etymology 2

From or influenced by Irish poc (“stroke in hurling, bag”). Compare poke (1861).

Verb

puck (third-person singular simple present pucks, present participle pucking, simple past and past participle pucked)

1. (chiefly Ireland) To hit, strike. [from 19th c.]

Noun

puck (plural pucks)

1. (ice hockey) A hard rubber disc; any other flat disc meant to be hit across a flat surface in a game. [from 19th c.]
   • 1886 February 28, Boston Daily Globe, page 2:

     In hockey a flat piece of rubber, say four inches long by three wide and about an inch thick, called a ‘puck’, is used.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 184:

     The game itself, though played by men, was probably meant to enact a mediation of the opposites of male and female, with a circular puck being the feminine symbol and the phallic hockey stick being the masculine symbol.

2. (chiefly Canada) An object shaped like a puck. [from 20th c.]
   • 2004, Art Directors Annual, volume 83, Rotovision, page 142:

     He reaches into the urinal and picks up the puck. He then walk over to the sink and replaces a bar of soap with the urinal puck.

3. (computing) A pointing device with a crosshair. [from 20th c.]
4. (hurling, camogie) A penalty shot.

Derived terms

Terms derived from puck

• hockey puck
• puck bunny
• puck carrier
• puck chaser
• puck chasing
• puck crown
• puck-dribbling
• puck-handler
• puck-handling
• puck palace
• puck-pusher
• puck sense
• puck-shy
• puckster
• rag the puck
• side puck
• where the puck is heading, where the puck is going

Descendants

• → Danish: puck
• → German: Puck
• → Swedish: puck

Translations

hockey puck — see hockey puck

See also

• Hockey puck on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 3

From the Irish poc (“male adult goat, billy goat”). Doublet of buck.

Noun

puck (plural pucks)

1. (Ireland, rustic) billy goat

Etymology 4

Blend of pike +‎ tuck

Noun

puck (plural pucks)

1. (trampoline, gymnastics) A body position between the pike and tuck positions, with knees slightly bent and folded in; open tuck.
   • 2013, The Sports Book: The Sports, the Rules, the Tactics, the Techniques‎^[1]:

     The puck position is allowed during competitions when performing multi-twisting multiple somersaults.

Swedish

Etymology

From English puck.

Noun

puck c

1. (ice hockey) a puck

   Synonym: (colloquial) trissa

Declension

Declension of puck

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	puck	pucks
	definite	pucken	puckens
plural	indefinite	puckar	puckars
	definite	puckarna	puckarnas

Idioms

All are colloquial.

• lugna puckar (“calm, under control”, literally “calm pucks”)
• raka puckar (“direct, blunt (compare English straight shooter)”, literally “straight pucks”)
• snabba puckar (“fast-paced”, literally “quick pucks”)

References

• puck in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• puck in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• puck in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)