pucksy

== English == === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈpʌksi/ === Etymology 1 === Unclear. The English Dialect Dictionary and Dictionary of the Scots Language mention a northeastern Scottish (Banff) dialectal word pouk "hole in the ground, usually waterlogged or marshy" which could be related (compare also pughole); the DSL considers that pouk to be the same word as the verb pouk (“to poke, to thrust”), and notes that in Banff pouk also means "dig or excavate in a careless, clumsy way, damage by excavation or holing". Alternatively, compare pock (“pit”). (In the 1800s, Halliwell-Phillipps speculated that the mires might be named in reference to the folk belief that pucksies/pucks (“mischievous or hostile spirits”) led travelers astray, potentially into bogs. ==== Noun ==== pucksy (plural pucksies) (southwestern England, possibly obsolete) An area of miry or swampy ground; a place (in a road, field, etc) where a spring rises, or where rain pools, and keeps the ground miry. For quotations using this term, see Citations:pucksy. For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pucksey. For more quotations using this term, see Citations:puxy. ===== Alternative forms ===== pucksey, puxy ==== References ==== Joseph Wright, editor (1903), “PUXY”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume IV (M–Q), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC. === Etymology 2 === From puck. ==== Noun ==== pucksy (plural pucksies) A puck (mischievous or hostile spirit) or pixie. For quotations using this term, see Citations:pucksy. ===== Alternative forms ===== puxy