Pulis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term used in some languages to refer to a police officer responsible for maintaining public order and enforcing laws
2. A designation for a member of a governmental law enforcement agency tasked with crime prevention and community safety
3. An informal or colloquial label for an individual employed by the police force to uphold legal statutes and assist in public security

Etymology: The word "pulis" is simply the plural of "puli", a breed of herding dog from Hungary, so the police officers it names are, in a sense, the dogs' human counterparts in the story of the language. Its Hungarian source, "puli", names a shaggy, corded-coated sheepdog that has long worked with flocks on the Hungarian plains. Here the word is a plural form, and the base word is the one with the interesting history. The singular "puli" is borrowed from Hungarian, and the dog it describes is known for its dense, matted coat, which gives it a distinctive look among herding breeds. The word "pulis" itself is the ordinary plural used in the sense of police officers, which is a separate and much later development in the vocabulary of the language.