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pontification (n.)[pontification 词源字典]: 1520s, "office of a bishop," noun of action from past participle stem of Medieval Latin pontificare (see pontificate (v.)). Meaning "something pontificated" is from 1925.[pontification etymology, pontification origin, 英语词源]
pontoon (n.): "flat-bottomed boat" (especially one to support a temporary bridge), 1670s, from French pontoon, from Old French ponton (14c.) "bridge, drawbridge, boat-bridge; flat-bottomed boat," from Latin pontonem (nominative ponto) "flat-bottomed boat," from pons "bridge" (see pons). Pontoon bridge is first recorded 1778.
Pontus: ancient district of Anatolia, from Greek pontos "sea" (see pons).
pony (n.): 1650s, powny, from Scottish, apparently from obsolete French poulenet "little foal" (mid-15c.), diminutive of Old French poulain "foal," from Late Latin pullanus "young of an animal," from Latin pullus "young of a horse, fowl, etc." (see foal (n.)) [Skeat's suggestion, still accepted].

German, sensibly, indicates this animal by attaching a diminutive suffix to its word for "horse," which might yield Modern English *horslet. Modern French poney is a 19c. borrowing from English. Meaning "crib of a text as a cheating aid" (1827) and "small liquor glass" (1849) both are from notion of "smallness" (the former also "something one rides"). As the name of a popular dance, it dates from 1963. The U.S. Pony Express began 1860 (and operated about 18 months before being superseded by the transcontinental telegraph). The figurative one-trick pony is 1897, American English, in reference to circus acts.
pony (v.): 1824, in pony up "to pay," of uncertain origin. OED says from pony (n.), but not exactly how. In other sources said to be from slang use of Latin legem pone to mean "money" (first recorded 16c.), because this was the title of the Psalm for March 25, a Quarter Day and the first payday of the year (the Psalm's first line is Legem pone michi domine viam iustificacionum "Teach me, O Lord, the ways of thy statutes").
ponytail (n.): long hair style, originally of girls, 1950, from pony (n.) + tail (n.).
Ponzi scheme: investment scam by which early investors are paid off from the contributions of later ones, 1957, in reference to Charles Ponzi (1882-1949), who perpetrated such a scam in U.S., 1919-20.
poo (n.): also pooh, baby-talk for "excrement," 1950s (see poop (n.2)).
pooch (n.): "dog," 1924, American English, of unknown origin.
poodle (n.): 1808, from German Pudel, shortened form of Pudelhund "water dog," from Low German Pudel "puddle" (compare pudeln "to splash;" see puddle (n.)) + German Hund "hound" (see hound (n.)). Probably so called because the dog was used to hunt water fowl. Figurative sense of "lackey" (chiefly British) is attested from 1907. Poodle-faker, British army slang for "ingratiating male," is from 1902, likely euphemistic.
poof (n.2): "effeminate man, male homosexual," c. 1850, perhaps a corruption of puff. The Australian extended form poofter is attested from 1910.
poof (n.1): sound of a puff of breath or air, 1824, imitative.
pooh: 1590s, "a 'vocal gesture' expressing the action of puffing anything away" [OED], first attested in Hamlet Act I, Scene III, where Polonius addresses Ophelia with, "Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl, / Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. / Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?" But the "vocal gesture" is perhaps ancient.
pooh-bah (n.): "leader who maintains excessive bureaucratic control," 1888, from Pooh-Bah, the name of the "Lord High Everything Else" character in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" (1885).
pooh-pooh (v.): "to dismiss lightly and contemptuously," 1827, a slang reduplication of dismissive expression pooh. Among the many 19th century theories of the origin of language was the Pooh-pooh theory (1860), which held that language grew from natural expressions of surprise, joy, pain, or grief.
pool (n.1): "small body of water," Old English pol "small body of water; deep, still place in a river," from West Germanic *pol- (cognates: Old Frisian and Middle Low German pol, Dutch poel, Old High German pfuol, German Pfuhl). As a short form of swimming pool it is recorded from 1901. Pool party is from 1965.
pool (n.2): game similar to billiards, 1848, originally (1690s) a card game played for collective stakes (a "pool"), from French poule "stakes, booty, plunder," literally "hen," from Old French poille "hen, young fowl" (see foal (n.)).

Perhaps the original notion is from jeu de la poule, supposedly a game in which people threw things at a chicken and the player who hit it, won it, which speaks volumes about life in the Middle Ages. The notion behind the word, then, is "playing for money." The connection of "hen" and "stakes" is also present in Spanish polla and Walloon paie.

Meaning "collective stakes" in betting first recorded 1869; sense of "common reservoir of resources" is from 1917. Meaning "group of persons who share duties or skills" is from 1928. From 1933 as short for football pool in wagering. Pool shark is from 1898. The phrase dirty pool "underhanded or unsportsmanlike conduct," especially in politics (1951), seems to belong here now, but the phrase dirty pool of politics, with an image of pool (n.1) is recorded from 1871 and was in use early 20c.
pool (v.1): "to make a common interest, put things into a pool," 1871, from pool (n.2). Related: Pooled; pooling.
pool (v.2): of liquid, "to form a pool or pools," 1620s, from pool (n.1).
poontang (n.): "sex with a woman; woman regarded as a sex object; female genitalia," c. 1910, of uncertain origin, probably via New Orleans Creole, from French putain "prostitute," from Old French pute "whore" (cognate with Spanish and Provençal puta), probably from fem. of Vulgar Latin *puttus "girl" (source of Old Italian putta "girl"), from Latin putus (originally "pure, bright, splendid").

But also possibly from or influenced by Old French put, from Latin putidus "stinking" on notion of the "foulness" of harlotry [Buck], or for more literal reasons (among the 16c.-17c. slang terms for "whore" in English were polecat, which might also be a pun, and fling-stink). Shortened form poon is recorded from 1969.