Puck (flat disk used in hockey)
Entry in progress—B.P.
Wikipedia: Hockey puck
A puck is a disk used in various games serving the same functions as a ball does in ball games. The best-known use of pucks is in ice hockey, a major international sport.
Etymology
The origin of the word “puck” is obscure. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests the name is related to the verb “to puck” (a cognate of “poke”) used in the game of hurling for striking or pushing the ball, from the Scottish Gaelic puc or the Irish poc, meaning to poke, punch or deliver a blow.
It is possible that Halifax natives, many of whom were Irish and played hurling, may have introduced the word to Canada. The first known printed reference was in Montreal, in 1867, just a year after the first indoor game was played there.
A hockey puck is also referred to colloquially as a “biscuit”.
Wiktionary: puck
Etymology
1886, from verb puck (“to hit or strike something”). Compare poke (1861), Irish poc (“stroke in hurling, bag”)
Noun
puck (plural pucks)
1.A hard hard rubber disc used in ice hockey; any other flat disc meant to be hit across a flat surface in a game.
2.(chiefly Canada) An object shaped like a puck.
Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
puck noun
Definition of PUCK
: a vulcanized rubber disk used in ice hockey
Origin of PUCK
English dialect puck to poke, hit, probably from Irish poc butt, stroke in hurling, literally, buck (male deer)
First Known Use: 1891
(Oxford English Dictionary)
puck, n.
Etymology: Probably <
puck v.
A flat disc, typically made of vulcanized rubber, designed to be propelled across a smooth flat surface and used in place of a ball in ice hockey and similar sports.
1886 Boston Daily Globe 28 Feb. 2/5 In hockey a flat piece of rubber, say four inches long by three wide and about an inch thick, called a ‘puck’, is used.
1894 Outing 23 409/2 These men handle the little innocent rubber puck as Paderewski handles the black keys of a piano.
puck, v.
Chiefly Irish English.
trans. To hit or strike; to butt; to box.
1861 A. H. Clington Frank O’Donnell 57 The ball was struck here and there, often pucked up in the air, then let again before it reached the ground.
1870 P. Kennedy Fireside Stories 37 (E.D.D.) The ram and the cow pucked her with their horns.
29 January 1885, Boston (MA) Herald, “The Carnival,” pg. 1, col. 4:
There was a good attendance of spectators at the crystal skating rink this morning to witness the second match
In the Hockey Tournament
between the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association and Montreal Foot Ball Club. Shortly after 11 o’clock Lord Lansdowne, accompanied by Mr. L. D. SIms, put in an appearance and watched the progress of the game with great interest for nearly an hour. THe amateurs soon secured four goals. The excited contestants again faced, and R. Campbell securing the puck, brought it down the rink with lightning rapidity.
5 February 1893, Bay City (MI) Times, “A Canadian Sport; Hockey as it is played on the ice field,” pg. 3, cols. 3-4:
The kaleidoscopic changes of formation and glancing of varied colors are very pleasing as the gayly costumed players pass and repass the “puck” from end to end of the rink with the speed and accuracy of a lacrosse ball.
(...)
It is the prime duty of the forwards to keep “on the puck”—in the lingo of the hockey fraternity—never allowing the opposing team to remain in undisputed possession for an instant.