Added 9 October 2026
poke
/pəʊk/ noun
In Latin: fodicō Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about poke at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- Tall coarse perennial American herb having small white flowers followed by blackish-red berries on long drooping racemes; young fleshy stems are edible; berries and root are poisonous.
- Someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind.
- A bag made of paper or plastic for holding customer's purchases.
verb
Origin
From Middle English poken, perhaps from Middle Dutch poken or Middle Low German poken, both from Proto-West Germanic *pukōn or similar, which is itself of uncertain origin, but may be from an imitative Proto-Germanic root *puk-. Doublet of poach. Compare Nordic cognates Swedish påka (“to poke, muck with a stick”), påk (“club, limb; dagger”), pykel (“small poker”), dialectal Norwegian pauka (“to walk stomping, etc”), pauk (“weak, slow person”). Central European noun-cognates refer to “dagger, bad knife, poker (for a fireplace)”, with analog verbs. To a Proto-Germanic *pauk-, *puk-, meanig, “to stick, muck with a stick”.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)