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POOL
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POOL . (I) A See also:pond, or a small See also:body of still See also:water; also a See also:place in a See also:river or stream where the water is deep and still,, so applied in the See also:Thames to that See also:part of the river known as The Pool, which reaches from below See also:London See also:Bridge to Limehouse. . The word in Old See also:English was pbl, which may be related to pull or pyll, and the similar See also:Celtic words, e.g. Cornish pol, a See also:creek, See also:common on the See also:Bristol Channel and See also:estuary of the See also:Severn, on the English See also:side in the See also:form " pill." A further connexion has been suggested with See also:Lat. palus, See also:marsh; Gr. irgMs, mud, ; (2) A name for the stakes, penalties, &c., in various, card and other See also:games when collected together to be paid out to the winners; also the name of a variety of games of See also:billiards (q.v.). This word has a curious See also:history. It is certainly adapted from Fr. poule, See also:hen, chicken, apparently a See also:slang See also:term for the stakes in a See also:game, possibly, as the New English See also:Dictionary suggests, used as a synonym for See also:plunder, See also:booty. " Chicken-See also:hazard " might be cited as a parallel, though that has been taken to be a corruption of " chequeen," a form of the See also:Turkish See also:coin, a See also:sequin. When the word came into use in English at the end of the 17th See also:century, it seems to have been at once identified with " pool," pond, as Fr. fiche (Eicher, to See also:fix), a See also:counter, was with "See also:fish," counters in card games often taking the form of " fish " made of See also:mother-of-See also:pearl, &c. " Pool," in the sense of a common fund, has been adopted as a commercial term for a See also:combination for the purpose ,of speculating in See also:stocks and shares, the several owners of securities " pooling" them and placing them under a single See also:control, and sharing all losses and profits.. Similarly the name is given to a form of See also:trade combination; especially in railway or See also:shipping companies, by which the receipts or profits are divided on a certain agreed-upon basis, for the purpose of avoiding competition (see See also:TRUSTS). End of Article: POOLAdditional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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