pole

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A long, thin, rounded piece of wood or metal used to hold or support something.

   They put up the tent and tied it to two wooden poles.

2. 2
   noun

   One of two completely opposite positions or opinions.

   On this issue, the two leaders are at opposite poles.

3. 3
   verb

   To push a boat along by pressing a pole against the bottom of the water.

   He poled the raft slowly down the river.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Pole has two distinct origins. The word for a long stake comes from an Old English word meaning “stake,” while pole in North Pole comes from Latin polus “end of an axis,” from Greek polos “pivot, axis, sky.”

From Middle English pole, pal, from Old English pāl (“a pole, stake, post; a kind of hoe or spade”), from Proto-West Germanic *pāl (“pole”), from Latin pālus (“stake, pale, prop, stay”), perhaps from Old Latin *paxlos, from Proto-Italic *pākslos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to nail, fasten”). Doublet of peel, pale, and palus. Cognates Cognate with Scots pale, paill (“stake, pale”), North Frisian pul, pil (“stake, pale”), Saterland Frisian Pool (“pole”), West Frisian poal (“pole”), Dutch paal (“pole”), German Pfahl (“pile, stake, post, pole”), Danish pæl (“pole”), Swedish påle…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary