Pool

What “Pool” means

Noun

1. 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.
2. Any small body of standing or stagnant water; a puddle.
3. Ellipsis of swimming pool.
4. A set of resources that are kept ready to use.
5. Any group of like things.

Verb

1. To form a pool.

Noun

1. A supply of resources.
2. A supply of resources.
3. 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.
4. A cue sport played on a pool table. There are 15 balls, 7 of one colour or solids, 7 of another color or stripes, 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.
5. 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.

Verb

1. 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.
2. To combine or contribute with others, as for a commercial, speculative, or gambling transaction.

Where the word comes from

From Middle English pool, pole, pol, from Old English pōl (“pool”), from Proto-West Germanic pōl, from Proto-Germanic *pōlaz (“pool, pond”), from Proto-Indo-European *bōlos (“bog, marsh”). Cognate with Scots puil (“pool”), Saterland Frisian Pol (“pool”), West Frisian poel (“pool”), Dutch poel (“pool”), German Low German Pohl, Pool, Pul (“pool”), German Pfuhl (“quagmire, mudhole”), Danish pøl (“puddle”), Swedish pöl (“puddle, pool”), Icelandic pollur (“puddle”), Lithuanian bala (“puddle”), Latvian bala (“a muddly, treeless depression”), Russian боло́то (bolóto, “swamp, bog, marsh”). For the meaning development to a supply of resources compare typologically Russian пруд пруди́ (prud prudí) (< пруд (prud)).

1. From French poule (“collective stakes in a game”). 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. 2. 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.

Business name ideas with “Pool”

Industries where “Pool” fits

We suggest this word for 2 business types and industries, including:

• Pool Service
• Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings