Comments on: More Than One Meaning for “Poke”

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:43:10 +0000

Peter-because it is Japanese in origin.

I know that, that’s why I asked…It’s pronounced like “pock” in Japanese, not like “poke”. (And actually, it’s English in origin: it’s a “Japlish” shortened form of “pocket monster”)

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:07:05 +0000

Here in Northern Ireland a ‘poke’ is an icecream in a cone. Also an icecream between two wafers was know as a ’slider’.

By: T. Grillo

T. Grillo — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:41:01 +0000

Here is a funny one you may not have heard of:
In our family we got our definition of poke from grandpa. He grew up in New York. If one of the boys happened to ‘pass gas’ the others could punch him in the arm – unless he yelled out “no poke” before they had a chance. So through the years this bodily function has evolved into a nopoke or a poke.

By: Maeve

Maeve — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:50:24 +0000

Mary Jo,
Hmm, and Tony Joe was born in Louisiana! I would have thought he’d known that poke salat is spelled with a “t.” Maybe his producers thought that non-Southerners would interpret salat as a misspelling.

Interesting entry for salad at Online Etymology Dictionary:

1390, from O.Fr. salade (14c.), from V.L. *salata, lit. “salted,” short for herba salata “salted vegetables” (vegetables seasoned with brine, a popular Roman dish), from fem. pp. of *salare “to salt,” from L. sal (gen. salis) “salt” (see salt). Du. salade, Ger. Salat, Swed. salat, Rus. salat are from Romanic languages.

By: ReneeM

ReneeM — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:55:33 +0000

I doubt those 8th graders read Larry McMurtry, but I first heard of “poke” being used in that context when I read Lonesome Dove.