Middle English: origin uncertain; compare with Middle Dutch and Middle Low German poken, of unknown ultimate origin. The noun dates from the late 18th century.

• pig from Old English:

  The word pig appears in Old English only once, the usual word being swine. In the Middle Ages pig at first meant specifically ‘a young pig’, as it still does in North America. Observations such as pigs might fly had a 17th-century parallel in pigs fly with their tails forward. An early user of the modern form was Lewis Carroll in 1865 in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: ‘ “I've a right to think,” said Alice sharply…“Just about as much right,” said the Duchess, “as pigs have to fly.” ’ In a pig in a poke, poke (Middle English) means ‘a small sack or bag’, now found mainly in Scottish English. The British phrase to make a pig's ear out of, ‘to handle ineptly’, probably derives from the proverb you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, recorded from the 16th century. In the children's game pig (or piggy) in the middle, first recorded in the Folk-Lore Journal of 1887, two people throw a ball to each other while a third tries to intercept it. This is behind the use of pig in the middle for a person who is in an awkward situation between two others. Piggyback has been around since the mid 16th century, but the origin of the expression has been lost. Early forms tend to be something like ‘pick-a-pack’ which seems to have been changed by folk etymology to the form we now have. See also hog

Middle English: from Old Northern French poke, variant of Old French poche 'pocket'. Compare with pouch.

Early 18th century: from Algonquian poughkone (see puccoon).