Etymology

pocket

pock·et
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Today it means: A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items. Full definition →

Middle English pocket ← Anglo-Norman poket ← Old French poche
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*puhô
  2. Frankish*pokō
  3. Old Frenchpoche
  4. Anglo-Normanpoket
  5. Middle Englishpocket
  6. English todaypocket

From Middle English pocket (“bag, sack”), from Anglo-Norman poket, Old Northern French poquet, poquete, diminutive of poque, poke (“bag, sack”) (compare modern Norman pouquette and modern French pochette from Old French pochete, from puche), from Frankish *pokō (“pouch”), from Proto-Germanic *puhô (“bag; pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). Equivalent to poke + -et. Doublet of pochette. Cognate with Middle Dutch poke, Alemannic German Pfoch (“purse, bag”), Old English pocca, pohha (“poke, pouch, pocket, bag”), Old Norse poki (“bag, pocket”). Compare the related poke (“sack or bag”). See also Modern French pochette and Latin bucca.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*puhô all →

embosspough

Proto-Indo-European*bew- all →

pickpollposepoutembosspockpough

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.