poker
pronunciation
How to pronounce poker in British English:
UK [ˈpəʊkə(r)]
How to pronounce poker in American English:
US [ˈpoʊkə(r)]
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- Noun:
- fire iron consisting of a metal rod with a handle; used to stir a fire
- any of various card games in which players bet that they hold the highest-ranking hand
Word Origin
- poker
- poker: English has two words poker. The earlier, poker for a fire [16], is simply the agent noun formed from poke [14], a verb borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German poken ‘thrust, hit’. The card-game name [19] originated in the USA, but it is not clear where it came from: one suggestion is that it is connected with German pochen ‘brag’.
- poker (n.1)
- "the iron bar with which men stir the fire" [Johnson], 1530s, agent noun from poke (v.).
- poker (n.2)
- card game, 1834, American English, of unknown origin, perhaps from the first element of German Pochspiel, name of a card game similar to poker, from pochen "to brag as a bluff," literally "to knock, rap" (see poke (v.)). A popular alternative theory traces the word to French poque, also said to have been a card game resembling poker. "[B]ut without documentation these explanations are mere speculation" [Barnhart]. The earlier version of the game in English was called brag. Slang poker face (n.) "deadpan" is from 1874. A good player is cautious or bold by turns, according to his estimate of the capacities of his adversaries, and to the impression he wants to make on them. 7. It follows that the possession of a good poker face is an advantage. No one who has any pretensions to good play will betray the value of his hand by gesture, change of countenance, or any other symptom. ["Cavendish," "Round Games at Cards," dated 1875] To any one not very well up in these games, some parts of the book are at first sight rather puzzling. "It follows," we read in one passage, "that the possession of a good poker face" (the italics are the author's) "is an advantage." If this had been said by a Liverpool rough of his wife, the meaning would have been clear to every one. Cavendish, however, does not seem to be writing especially for Lancashire. [review of above, "Saturday Review," Dec. 26, 1874]
Example
- 1. Then there 's zynga 's online poker game .
- 2. ( The company has released a few such games , including zynga poker and farmville express . )
- 3. My sister sent around a facebook invite for a poker tournament to raise funds .
- 4. Online poker followed a couple of years later .
- 5. You must first establish whether bozzer is a poker addict .