Pucks

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /pʌks/

Definitions

1. A type of disc used in the sport of ice hockey, which players hit into the opposing team's goal to score points
2. A playful term referencing small rounded objects, often in the context of games or toys
3. A playful or mischievous individual who engages in antics or pranks, embodying a spirit of fun and mischief

Etymology: "Pucks" is simply the plural of "puck," the small black disc struck across the ice in hockey. The noun "puck" itself is far older than the sport, and it descends from a word for a mischievous spirit. In Old English, "pūca" meant a goblin or demon, and its relatives appear in Old Norse as "púki," meaning devil, and in Swedish dialect as "puke." The same root gave English the pooka, a shape-shifting spirit of Irish folklore, so the two words are doublets, separate borrowings from one source. The hockey sense is a different branch. Its likeliest source is Irish "poc," a word used for the stroke in hurling and for a bag, which may have influenced the English term through the game's Irish and Scottish roots. The sense of "puck" as a hard disc used to propel a game appears in the nineteenth century, and the rubber disc itself was standardized in the same era that organized ice hockey took shape.

Synonyms: discs, pucks