pou

See also: Pou, póu, pòu, põu, pōu, pǒu, and POU

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch pauw.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

pou (plural poue, diminutive poutjie)

1. peacock

Derived terms

• gompou

Amanab

Noun

pou

1. a kind of snake

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈpow]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ow

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Catalan pou, from pre-literary */ˈpot͡s/, from Latin puteus. First attested in 1272.

Noun

pou m (plural pous)

1. well (a hole sunk into the ground as a source of water, oil, natural gas or other fluids)
2. (figurative) well (a source of supply)
   • 2020 August 11, Mònica Planas Callol, “Secrets i prejudicis a l’americana [American-style secrets and prejudices]”, in Ara‎^[1]:

     La sèrie provoca una angoixa creixent en l’espectador per la tendència dels personatges a amagar les seves ferides en comptes de guarir-les, i això es converteix en un pou de malentesos i conflictes que es van acumulant.

     The show causes a growing anxiety in the viewer because of the characters' tendency to hide their wounds instead of healing them, and that becomes a well of misunderstandings and conflicts that build up over time.

Derived terms

• pouar

Etymology 2

Verb

pou

1. (Balearic, Alghero) first-person singular present indicative of pouar

Further reading

• “pou” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “pou” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “pou” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Franco-Provençal

Etymology

Inherited from Latin paucus/-um.

Adverb

pou (ORB, broad)

1. little

   Antonym: prod

Determiner

pou (ORB, broad)

1. a little

References

• peu in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• pou in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

Further information

• ALF: Atlas Linguistique de la France^[2] [Linguistic Atlas of France] – map 1007: “un peu” – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “paucus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 8: Patavia–Pix, page 51

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French pouil, peouil, püil, from Late Latin peduclus < peduculus, variant of Latin pēdīculus, from pēdis, from Proto-Indo-European *pezd-. The singular is a back-formation from the plural (see also genou with the same development).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pu/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Homophones: poux, pouls
• Rhymes: -u

Noun

pou m (plural poux)

1. louse; head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis)

Usage notes

Only seven words in French ending in -ou have their plurals in -oux instead of -ous: bijou, caillou, chou, genou, hibou, joujou, pou.

Derived terms

• chercher des poux
• être dans les poux de bois
• laid comme un pou
• pouilleux

See also

• lente f

Further reading

• “pou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Haitian Creole

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pu/

Etymology 1

From French pour (“for”).

Preposition

pou

1. for
   • 2019 March 19, “Rankont ann Itali ant Anvwaye Espesyal Etazini ak Larisi sou Kriz Venezuela a”, in Lavwadlamerik‎^[3]:

     Anvwaye espesyal Etazini pou Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, ak vis-minis afè etranjè Larisi, Sergei Ryabkov, ap fè reyinyon nan vil Wòm ann Itali pou yo pale sou “sityasyon Venezuela kap agrave.”

     American Special Envoy for Venezuela Elliot Abrams and Russian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Ryabkov are meeting in the city of Rome, Italy to speak about "the worsening situation in Venezuela."

Etymology 2

From French pou (“louse”).

Noun

pou

1. louse

Mandarin

Romanization

pou

1. Nonstandard spelling of pōu.
2. Nonstandard spelling of póu.
3. Nonstandard spelling of pǒu.
4. Nonstandard spelling of pòu.

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Maori

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *bou (“pillar supporting raised floor, roof or ridgepole” – compare with Tahitian pou, Tongan pou, Samoan pou and Fijian pou).

Noun

pou

1. post, stake, pillar

   Synonym: turu

2. column
3. support
4. stalwart

Verb

pou (passive poua)

1. to erect a post
2. to prop on (or elevate with) posts or pillars
3. to establish
4. to appoint

Derived terms

• poupou

Further reading

• Williams, Herbert William (1917) “pou”, in A Dictionary of the Maori Language, pages 345-6
• “pou” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.

Mauritian Creole

Alternative forms

• pu

Etymology

From French pour. Compare Haitian Creole pou.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pu/

Preposition

pou

1. for

Verb

pou (medial form pou)

1. (auxiliary) Used to indicate future tense.

Related terms

• ti pou

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French poi.

Adverb

pou

1. little (not much, not a lot)

Descendants

• French: peu

Old French

Adverb

pou

1. Alternative form of poi

Pará Arára

Alternative forms

• pougu (used when talking to a capuchin monkey)

Noun

pou

1. small peccary

Further reading

• 2010, Isaac Costa de Souza, A Phonological Description of “Pet Talk” in Arara (MA), SIL Brazil, page 42.

Tulu-Bohuai

Noun

pou

1. pig

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)

Yanomamö

Noun

pou (plural pouku)

1. a little stream, watercourse, arroyo

References

• Lizot, Jacques (2004) Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua yãnomãmɨ‎^[4] (in Spanish), Vicariato apostólico de Puerto Ayacucho, →ISBN