867: poke, pocket, and pouch Apr 23, 2017

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There are plenty of groups of words that are all etymologically related though they do not have similar meanings, much in the same way as with 'budget', 'bulge', and 'belly'. The words 'pouch' and 'pocket' denote similar things and are relatively close in appearance, so it might not be too surprising that they are indeed related. The '-et' that exist in 'pocket' is typical of many other French diminutives that are found in English, though the stem is not 'pock' in this case, but 'poke'. It may be true that most English speakers would associate that word with the act of jabbing, 'poke' does also refer to a small purse in some dialects, you may recognize the word from the phrase "a pig in a poke". While they all come from Old French, the words come from different dialects so while 'poke' and 'pouch were 'poche' in Old Northern French (which would have been 'pouch' in Old French), 'pocket' comes from the Anglo-Norman 'poket'.

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