poll
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɔl/
ipa: /pəʊl/
ipa: /pɒʊl/
ipa: /pɒl/
ipa: /poʊl/
ipa: /pol/
rhymes: -əʊl
homophone: pole
homophone: Pole
Forms: form: polls
form: pol
form: pole
Etymology: From Middle English pol, polle ("scalp, pate"), from or cognate with Middle Dutch pol, pōle, polle (“top, summit; head”), from Proto-West Germanic *poll, from Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“round object, head, top”), from Proto-Indo-European *bolno-, *bōwl- (“orb, round object, bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”).
Akin to Scots pow (“head, crown, scalp, skull”), Saterland Frisian pol (“round, full, brimming”, adjective), German Low German Polle, Poll (“round object, ball”), German Low German Poller (“head, tree-top, bulb”), Danish puld (“crown of a hat”), Swedish dialectal pull (“head”).
Meaning "collection of votes" is first recorded 1625, from the notion of "counting heads".
Senses: synonyms: survey
glosses: A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.
examples: text: The student council had a poll to see what people want served in the cafeteria.
text: All soldiers quartered in place are to remove […] and not to return till one day after the poll is ended.
ref: 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
text: The other returns having come in, the result of the poll, that Sir James Graham had been superseded by Major Aglionby, was declared at Carlisle soon after 11 a.m.
ref: 1942 May-June, Charles E. Lee, “The Brampton Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 140, relating to an election in 1837:
synonyms: vote
election
glosses: A formal vote held in order to ascertain the most popular choice.
examples: text: The polls close at 8 p.m.
glosses: A polling place (usually as plural, polling places)
glosses: The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
examples: text: […]the doctor, as if to hear better, had taken off his powdered wig, and sat there, looking very strange indeed with his own close-cropped black poll.
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
text: And you might perceive the president and general manager, Mr. R. G. Atterbury, with his priceless polished poll, busy in the main office room dictating letters..
ref: 1908, O. Henry, A Tempered Wind:
text: The main plate is formed in two halves, the upper plate having small sideplates, ear guards, an escutcheon plate (blank), and a brass plume-holder, as well as a hinged poll plate.
ref: 2005, Stuart W. Pyhrr; Donald J. LaRocca; Dirk H. Breiding; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), The Armored Horse in Europe, 1480-1620, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 53:
synonyms: scalp
qualifier: now rare outside veterinary medicine contexts
glosses: The head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which hair (normally) grows.
examples: text: We are the greater poll, and in true fear
They gave us our demands.
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: The muster file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand poll.
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
glosses: A mass of people, a mob or muster, considered as a head count.
raw_tags: in extended senses of the above
glosses: The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
glosses: The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.
Derived terms: blackpoll
bypoll
deed poll
dodipole
exit poll
Gallup poll
go to the polls
minipoll
opinion poll
outpoll
poleaxe
pollage
pollarchy
poll book
pollbook
poll card
pollee
pollercoaster
poll evil
polling
pollist
pollman
pollmeister
poll parrot
pollster
polltaker
polltaking
poll tax
poll-tax
poll worker
prepoll
push-poll
push poll
redpoll
robopoll
straw poll
stunpoll
telepoll
tracking poll
Related terms: pollard
polliwog
tadpole