# puck
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: pŭk, IPA: /pʌk/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (Northern England, Ireland) IPA: /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)
* (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.
* (mythology, literature) The mischievous fairy-like creature from English folklore, like Puck from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

##### Synonyms

* See goblin (hostile) and fairy (mischievous)
* (a small being, human in form who is playful and has magical powers): Robin Goodfellow, faerie, faery, fairy, fay, sprite

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

#### Noun

puck (plural pucks)
* (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.
* (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.
* (computing) A pointing device with a crosshair. [from 20th c.]
* (hurling, camogie) A penalty shot.

##### Derived terms

* 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

##### 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)
* (Ireland, rustic) billy goat

### Etymology 4

Blend of pike +‎ tuck

#### Noun

puck (plural pucks)
* (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:The puck position is allowed during competitions when performing multi-twisting multiple somersaults.

## Swedish
### Etymology

From English puck.

### Noun

puck c
* (ice hockey) a puck
    Synonym: (colloquial) trissa

#### 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)