Where does “poke” come from?
poke (Middle English) comes from Anglo-Norman poke, from Frankish *pokō, from Proto-Germanic *puhô, from Proto-Indo-European bew- — "low-pitch humming noise".
Ancestry of “poke”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Anglo-Norman | poke | sack |
| 2 | Frankish | *pokō | — |
| 3 | Proto-Germanic | *puhô | — |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | bew- | "low-pitch humming noise" |