pot

Etymology 1

From Middle English pot, potte, from Old English pott (“pot”) and Old French pot (“pot”) (probably from Frankish *pott); both Old English and Frankish from Proto-Germanic *puttaz (“pot”), from Proto-Indo-European *budnós (“a type of vessel”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pot (“pot”), Dutch pot (“pot”), German Low German Pott (“pot”), German Pott (“pot”), Swedish potta (“chamber pot”), Icelandic pottur (“tub, pot”), Old Armenian պոյտն (poytn, “pot, earthen pot”). Also, Old Norse pottr (“pot, tub, basin”). The sense of ruin or deterioration was originally a general allusion to "being chopped up and tossed in a (normally fiery) pot, like a piece of meat" (i.e. to get wasted or done with (by someone)). The 'clean' slang term which was used in reference to toilet rooms and lavatories apparently derives from English chamberpots, although now usually encountered as potty in the context of children's toilet training.

noun

1. A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food.
2. Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
   1. A vessel (usually earthenware) used with a seal for storing food, such as a honeypot.
   2. A vessel used for brewing or serving drinks: a coffeepot or teapot.
   3. A vessel used to hold soil for growing plants, particularly flowers: a flowerpot.
   4. (archaic except in fixed expressions) A vessel used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot; (figurative, slang) a toilet; the lavatory.
      Shit or get off the pot.
      “Clinton,” Gail cried from outside, “are you going to sit on the pot all day?” 2011, Ben Zeller, Secrets of Beaver Creek, page 204
   5. A crucible: a melting pot.
   6. A pot-shaped trap used for catching lobsters or other seafood: a lobster pot.
   7. A pot-shaped metal or earthenware extension of a flue above the top of a chimney: a chimney pot.
   8. A perforated cask for draining sugar.
   9. (obsolete) An earthen or pewter cup or mug used for drinking liquor.
   10. (Australia, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania) A glass of beer in Australia whose size varies regionally but is typically around 10 fl oz (285 mL).
       There are plenty of pubs and bars all over Australia (serving beer in schooners – 425ml or middies/pots ~285ml), and if you don′t fancy those you can drink in wine bars, pleasant beer gardens, or with friends at home. 2009, Deborah Penrith et al., Live & Work in Australia, page 187
3. (archaic except in place names) Pothole, sinkhole, vertical cave.
   Rowten Pot
4. A shallow hole used in certain games played with marbles. The marbles placed in it are called potsies.
5. (slang, uncountable) Ruin or deterioration.
   After his arrest, his prospects went to pot.
6. (historical) Any of various traditional units of volume notionally based on the capacity of a pot.
7. (historical) An iron hat with a broad brim worn as a helmet.
   The pot is an iron hat with broad brims: there are many under the denomination in the Tower, said to have been taken from the French... 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 12
8. (rail transport) A pot-shaped non-conducting (usually ceramic) stand that supports an electrified rail while insulating it from the ground.
9. (gambling, poker) The money available to be won in a hand of poker or a round of other games of chance; (figurative) any sum of money being used as an enticement.
   No one's interested. You need to sweeten the pot.
10. (UK, horse-racing, slang) A favorite: a heavily-backed horse.
11. (slang) Clipping of potbelly: a pot-shaped belly, a paunch.
    Fabienne: I wish I had a pot. Butch: You were lookin' in the mirror and you wish you had some pot? Fabienne: A pot. A pot belly. Pot bellies are sexy. Butch: Well you should be happy, 'cause you do. Fabienne: Shut up, Fatso! I don't have a pot! I have a bit of a tummy, like Madonna when she did "Lucky Star". It's not the same thing. 1994, Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction
12. (slang) Clipping of potshot: a haphazard shot; an easy or cheap shot.
    England were shipping penalties at an alarming rate - five in the first 15 minutes alone - and with Wilkinson missing three long-distance pots of his own in the first 20 minutes, the alarm bells began to ring for Martin Johnson's men. October 1, 2011, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport
13. (chiefly East Midlands, Yorkshire) A plaster cast.
14. (historical) Alternative form of pott: a former size of paper, 12.5 × 15 inches.

verb

1. To put (something) into a pot.
   to pot a plant
2. To preserve by bottling or canning.
   potted meat
3. (snooker, pool, billiards) To cause a ball to fall into a pocket.
4. (snooker, pool, billiards) To be capable of being potted.
   The black ball doesn't pot; the red is in the way.
5. (transitive) To shoot with a firearm.
   When hunted, it [the jaguar] takes refuge in trees, and this habit is well known to hunters, who pursue it with dogs and pot it when treed. 1897, Encyclopaedia of Sport
6. (intransitive, dated) To take a pot shot, or haphazard shot, with a firearm.
7. (transitive, colloquial) To secure; gain; win; bag.
8. (Britain) To send someone to gaol, expeditiously.
9. (obsolete, dialect, UK) To tipple; to drink.
   It is less labour to plough than to pot it.
10. (transitive) To drain (e.g. sugar of the molasses) in a perforated cask.
    Too much temper likewise prevents the melasses from separating from the sugar when it is potted or put into the hogshead 1793, Bryan Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies
11. (transitive, Britain) To seat a person, usually a young child, on a potty or toilet, typically during toilet teaching.
    Ideally the best Ideally the best way of tackling the problem of toilet training, is to 'pot' your child at set intervals when he is at home, even though he may no longer be a baby, thus establishing a regular routine instead of one at odd intervals. 1975, Nancie R. Finnie, Handling the Young Cerebral Palsied Child, page 75
    If you leave out this “catching" stage altogether and start proper toilet training at, say, eighteen months you will only have to pot your baby about 2000 times for the same effect. 1978, Penelope Leach, Your Baby & Child from Birth to Age Five, page 225
    Do not make the mistake of potting your baby as early as possible, but wait until she gives the signal that she is aware that puddles are somehow to do with her. 2004, Joan Gomez, Coping with Incontinence, page 33
    Of course, if at any stage your child takes a violent dislike to the pot, then I would put it away for a few weeks and then try again, but if the pot is very comfortable, your attitude is calm and you don't over-pot your child (put him on the pot too often or talk about the pot too much), this shouldn't happen. 2012, Nanny Smith, Nina Grunfeld, Nanny Knows Best: Successful Potty Training
12. (chiefly East Midlands) To apply a plaster cast to a broken limb.
13. To catch (a fish, eel, etc) via a pot.
    Potting Eels: Except for the mature neshaws, Vineyard eels were potted (caught by pots) in September and October. […] When eeling was good, each pot would catch 25 to 100 pounds of neshaws; some pots would be filled to capacity. 1994, The Dukes County Intelligencer, volumes 36-37, page 131
14. (rugby, transitive) To score (a drop goal).
    With five minutes to go, Trevathan potted his second goal, and finally it was the fullback Taylor who scored. 1967, Arthur H. Carman, Ranfurly Shield Rugby, page 139
    He played for the Oxford Australians against their Cambridge counterparts, and even potted a few goals at picnic Rugby matches. 1998, Geoffrey Serle: In Tribute, page 20

Etymology 2

Possibly a shortened form of Mexican Spanish potiguaya (“marijuana leaves”) or potaguaya (“cannabis leaves”) or potación de guaya (literally “drink of grief”), supposedly denoting a drink of wine or brandy in which marijuana buds were steeped, from pota + de + guaya (see guayar (“to lament”)).

noun

1. (slang, uncountable) Marijuana.
   The way we figure it, ma'am, if everybody walked around naked, smoked pot and listened to rock'n'roll, there wouldn't be any more wars! 1968 July, Shel Silverstein, “Silverstein's Hippies”, in Playboy Magazine, page 189

Etymology 3

Clipping of potentiometer.

noun

1. (slang, electronics) A simple electromechanical device used to control resistance or voltage (often to adjust sound volume) in an electronic device by rotating or sliding when manipulated by a human thumb, screwdriver, etc.

verb

1. (slang, broadcasting) To fade volume in or out by means of a potentiometer.
   While the announcer is talking, the select switch on the mixing board for the microphone input is selected, and the microphone is “potted up.” 1999, A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-engineers, page 23

Etymology 4

Clipping of potion.

noun

1. (roleplaying games) Clipping of potion.