pouch
.
Searchable Lemmata: pouche (AF), pouche (ME), pocha (L), puchia (L), pouche (OScots), pouch (MdE).
Alternate Forms: pochas, pochiis, powche, pucha, puche, puchia, pucheis, pulche.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1(n.)
Accessory;
bag, sack, poke; developing into the sense of a small, soft bag of cloth or leather, made to be tied to the clothing or hung from the belt, often used for carrying money; a purse or pocket. Also in many earlier uses, a bagful, a unit of measure (specified or unspecified; esp. in L accounts). See also poke.(ante 1250 still in current use)
1. de kidellis et pucheis per aquam Sabrine comburendis ... omnes kidellos et pucheas quas per aquam illam se invenire contigerit ... conburi ... faciant
Accounts.
[DMLBS Cl (32) 1262]
4. [A361] ... An haberdasshere and a carpenter, / A webbe [vrr. webbere, webster], a dyere, and a tapycer [vrr. taphiser, Tapecer, tapecere], / And they were clothed alle in oo lyueree / Of a solempne and a greet fraternytee ... [A.365] Ful fressh and newe hir geere apiked was / Hir knyues were chaped noght with bras / But al with siluer ... / Hir girdles and hir pouches euerydel.
Poetic.
[MED Chaucer CT.Prol. ((Manly-Rickert) A.361-368) circa 1390]
5. [129] ... Johanni Couper: a docer & a new bancqwer & ij Cochyns ... [130] ... ij stane of prus garne & a stane of twyne ... Item, Johannæ de Carlton ... half a pes of lawmpas ... a volet of lawmpas neu ... Margeretæ ... do et lego a ... volette of crysp; ... a crisp volet ... Lego Willielmo, filio meo ... unam zonam de corio, cum uno powche
Wills.
[MED Will York in Sur.Soc.4 (129-130) 1389/1390]
Sex: Male, Female Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, AF pouche, Old French pouche; cf. poke.
The OED adds: 'App. attested earlier as a surname, although it is unclear whether this reflects currency of the Middle English or the Anglo-Norman word: Gillebertus Poche (1184)' (s.v. 'pouch, n.', OED3).
WF: Derivation
Etym Cog: poke, poca (L).
References:
