pot-hookn.

Brit.

/ˈpɒthʊk/, U.S.

/ˈpɑtˌ(h)ʊk/

Forms: see pot n.¹ and hook n.¹; also 1500s potthoge, 1500s potwhoke, 1700s pottock, 1900s– patoock (Caribbean).

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: pot n.¹, hook n.¹

Etymology: < pot n.¹ + hook n.¹

a. A hook suspended over a fireplace on which a pot or kettle may be hung. Also: a metal rod (usually curved) with a hook at the end, for lifting a heated pot, stove lid, etc. Cf. pot hanger n.

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society > occupation and work > equipment > tool > parts of tools generally > [noun] > handle > of specific tool

crankc1000

steal1377

pipe1397

pot-hook1397

shaft1530

fork-shafta1642

bell-handle1768

hasp1770

fettle1812

panhandle1890

the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > cooking vessel or pot > [noun] > bar or chain for hanging

rack1391

reckon1400

hake1402

kilp1425

pot-clip1459

pothangles1468

reckon-crook1469

kettle-hook1485

rax1519

pot hangings1521

pot hangerc1525

pot-crookc1530

pot-hook1530

trammel1537

pot-kilp1542

gallow-balk1583

hale1589

hanger1599

pot-keep1611

pot rack1619

reckon hook1645

ratten crook1665

winter1668

rantle1671

cotterel1674

rantle-tree1685

rannel-balk1781

sway1825

rannel-perch1855

1397 in J. Raine Charters Priory Finchale (1837) p. cxviii (MED) Item, j pothuk et j securis pro coquina.

c1422 Inventory Norwich in Norfolk Archaeol. (1895) 12 202 (MED) ij pothokys, ij brendled, j fleshhok.

1467 Maldon (Essex) Court Rolls (Bundle 43, No. 14) ii. keteles; i. rakke; i par de pottehokes.

?a1500 Nominale (Yale Beinecke 594) in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 770/14 Hec capana, a pothoke.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 257/1 Potte hokes, unes ancestes.

1621 E. Maior in G. Eland Shardeloes Papers (1947) i. 8 The fyre..had fired a peece of wood that was..neere levell with the Iron whereuppon the pot-hooks were fastened.

1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 296 Setting their Earthen or Copper Pots there~on, not hanging them on Pothooks as we do.

1724 H. Moll New Descr. Eng. & Wales 270 An ancient golden Torquess..hooked at both Ends exactly like a pair of Pothooks.

1795 Sale Catal. in Notes & Queries (1951) 14 Apr. 158/2 Crane, and pot hooks..Spit, and pair bellows.

1869 H. B. Stowe Oldtown Folks vi. 62 The great black crane..swung over it, with its multiplicity of pot-hooks and trammels.

1889 L. Larcom New Eng. Girlhood i. 22 We..sometimes smirched our clean aprons..against the swinging crane with its sooty pot-hooks and trammels.

1904 ‘O. Henry’ Heart of West (1917) ix. 133 There was a little river, crooked as a pot-hook, that crawled through the middle of the town.

1987 M. Kochanski Northern Bushcraft (1988) i. 56 Because the bar is well-above the fire a variety of pot-hooks are employed to lower the pots at the required heights.

b. In plural. A pair of iron hooks made into a collar and used as an instrument of punishment, esp. for slaves. Also in singular in same sense. Now historical.

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society > authority > punishment > public or popular punishments > [noun] > iron collar worn round neck

pot-crookc1530

carcana1533

pot-hooks1679

1679 in H. R. Janisch Extracts St. Helena Rec. (1885) 13 That Rowland..be brought to the place of Execution..and then have forty stripes save one on his naked body and have an Iron pair of Pot hooks rivetted about his neck.

1707 H. Sloane Voy. Islands I. p. lviii For running away they put..pottocks about their necks, which are iron rings with two long necks riveted to them.

1751 J. MacSparran Let. Bk. (1899) 52 He [sc. a runaway slave in Rhode Island] had w^t is called Pothooks put about his Neck.

?1760 Apol. Life Mr. Bampfylde-Moore Carew (ed. 5) xx. 262 Is not this the Man Captain Froade brought over, and put a Pot-Hook upon?

1894 Littell's Living Age 27 Jan. 217/2 The blacksmith on shore made for him a heavy iron collar, called in Maryland a pot-hook, such as was used for runaway slaves.

1943 in F. G. Cassidy & R. B. Le Page Dict. Jamaican Eng. (1967) 361/1 Patoock, a ring to shackle slave.

1999 D. Hall In Miserable Slavery viii. 193 On the 29th the collar and chain were taken off but the pot-hook left on.

2. A curved or hooked stroke made with the pen, esp. as a component of an unfamiliar or unintelligible script or when learning to write; (also) a crooked character, a scrawl. Frequently in plural; also frequently coupled with hanger (cf. hanger n.² 4d).In 19th- and 20th-cent. colloquial use sometimes spec.: (in plural) shorthand.

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society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > formation of letters > [noun] > stroke

linea1382

tittlec1384

stroke1567

minim1587

pot-hook1611

dash1615

hair-stroke1634

hook1668

foot stroke1676

stem1676

duct1699

hanger1738

downstroke?1760

hairline1846

up-stroke1848

skit1860

pot-crook1882

ligature1883

coupling-stroke1906

bow1914

ductus1922

ascender1934

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Pasté,..a blurre, scraule, pothooke, or ill~fauoured whim-wham, in writing.

1637 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Elder Brother i. ii. sig. B3^v Bri. What have we heere? Pothookes and Andirons! And. I much pitie you, It is the Syrian Character, or the Arabicke.

1690 J. Dryden Don Sebastian ii. ii. 42 No peeping here, though I long to be spelling her Arabick scrawls and pot-hooks.

1710 J. Swift Let. 9 Dec. (1768) IV. 131 You know such a pothook makes a letter; and you know what letter, and so, and so.

1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. p. lxxxii His Skill in making Pot-hooks and Hangers with a Pencil.

1799 B. Thompson Kotzebue's Stranger in Inchbald's Theatre I. 59 I'll go for his copy~book. He makes his pothooks capitally.

1846 ‘Lord Chief Baron’ Swell's Night Guide (new ed.) 128/1 Pothooks and hangers, short hand characters.

1848 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. (rev. ed.) ii. vii. 127 But little skilled in the mystery of combining pot-hooks and hangers.

1874 D. Emmett & C. White Hard Times 8 Den you is mine! De debble ain't got my pot-hooks to de paper.

1887 G. R. Sims Mary Jane's Mem. 237 She's scrawling pothooks and hangers on a dirty sheet of paper.

1957 R. A. Heinlein Door into Summer ii. 39 Darling, if this is a formal meeting, I guess you had better make pothooks.

1963 C. Mackenzie My Life & Times I. 156 From her I learnt to write pothooks and hangers and very soon to pass from pothooks and hangers to real letters.

1989 Finnish Trade Rev. (Nexis) May 4 A boyish and energetic lawyer who has wasted no time in getting acquainted with the pothooks and hangers of English jurisprudence.

2004 Weekend Austral. (Nexis) 21 Feb. b2 Graduating from drawing pothooks on slates with slate pencils to perfecting running writing in copybooks with pens and ink.

Compounds

C1. attributive. Designating something bent or curved like a pot-hook (sense 1a).

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1659 London Chaunticleres 27 Dost think I'l hang in thy pot-hook armes?

1779 Farmer's Mag. Feb. 43 The cross-tree pothook drail swing plough, which with two horses will plough most kinds..of land.

1959 M. Durack Kings in Grass Castles (1974) 98 The Costello party moved south on a pot-hook trail twenty-five miles downstream.

2002 J. Cunliffe Encycl. Dog Breeds (new ed.) 39/2 The Shih Tzu has a pot-hook tail, which is held over the back like a teapot handle.

C2. attributive. With reference to handwriting (see sense 2).

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society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [adjective] > bad > illegible or untidy

unlegible1451

foul?1467

scribbled1550

scribbling1592

crabbed1612

hieroglyphical1613

scrabbled1625

illegible1640

unreadable1655

scribbly1659

pot-hook1674

scrawlinga1754

undecipherable1758

scribblative1829

scrawly1833

scrawny1833

scrawled1848

hieroglyphic1856

pot-hooky1867

scriggly1896

chicken scratch1933

1674 T. Flatman To Mr. Austin 9 No more, than read that dung fork, pothook hand That in Queen's Colledge Library does stand.

1820 J. Trumbull Poet. Wks. II. 63 Why need she learn to write, or spell? A pothook scrawl is just as well.

1914 W. Owen Let. 2 Mar. (1967) 236 Thanks for the Catalogue of Pothook-books [sc. Pitman's catalogue].

1947 M. Penn Manch. Fourteen Miles i. 15 His laborious pothook writing, his slow reading..disgusted her.

Derivatives

† pot-hooked adj. Obsolete rare having a pot-hook (sense 2).

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society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > formation of letters > [adjective] > other forms

arrow-headed1799

nail-headed1801

arrowhead1805

blind1820

crossed1834

ligulate1863

ligulated1864

ligated1866

pot-hooked1898

calculiform1900

1898 C. Murray in Daily News 27 Jan. 6/2 The Dreyfus letters very commonly have a curious pothooked starting point... They curl upwards at the start.

† pot-hookery n. Obsolete unintelligible writing, scrawl.Apparently an isolated use.

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society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [noun] > bad handwriting > untidy or illegible

scribbling1536

scribble-scrabble1602

scrawling1612

scrawl1710

scrawls1728

hieroglyphic1742

scoteinography1779

scratch1785

pot-hookery1795

hen scrat1825

cryptogram1827

scribble1828

griffonage1832

hen-scratching1851

chicken scratches1863

hieroglyph1875

1795 T. Twining Let. 15 Feb. in S. Parr Wks. (1828) VIII. 273 The Professor's conscribillatio is a more illegible..piece of pot-hookery than yours.

ˈpot-hooky adj. rare (of writing) characterized by pot-hooks, scrawly.

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