puck

Etymology 1

From Middle English pouke, from Old English pūca (“goblin, demon”), from Proto-West Germanic *pūkō, from Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pāug(')- (“brilliance, spectre”). Cognate with Old Norse púki (“devil”) (dialectal Swedish puke), Middle Low German spōk, spūk (“apparition, ghost”), German Spuk (“a haunting”). Doublet of pooka. More at spook.

noun

1. (now rare) A mischievous or hostile spirit.
   William Tyndale allotted this character a role, of leading nocturnal travellers astray as the puck had been said to do since Anglo-Saxon times and the goblin since the later medieval period. 2017, Ronald Hutton, The Witch, Yale University Press, published 2018, page 232

Etymology 2

From or influenced by Irish poc (“stroke in hurling, bag”). Compare poke (1861).

verb

1. (chiefly Ireland) To hit, strike.

noun

1. (ice hockey) A hard rubber disc; any other flat disc meant to be hit across a flat surface in a game.
   In hockey a flat piece of rubber, say four inches long by three wide and about an inch thick, called a ‘puck’, is used. 28 February 1886, Boston Daily Globe, page 2
   The game itself, though played by men, was probably meant to enact a mediation of the opposites of male and female, with a circular puck being the feminine symbol and the phallic hockey stick being the masculine symbol. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 184
2. (chiefly Canada) An object shaped like a puck.
   He reaches into the urinal and picks up the puck. He then walk over to the sink and replaces a bar of soap with the urinal puck. 2004, Art Directors Annual, volume 83, Rotovision, page 142
3. (computing) A pointing device with a crosshair.
4. (hurling, camogie) A penalty shot.

Etymology 3

From the Irish poc (“male adult goat, billy goat”). Doublet of buck.

noun

1. (Ireland, rural) billy goat

Etymology 4

Blend of pike + tuck

noun

1. (trampoline, gymnastics) A body position between the pike and tuck positions, with knees slightly bent and folded in; open tuck.
   The puck position is allowed during competitions when performing multi-twisting multiple somersaults. 2013, The Sports Book: The Sports, the Rules, the Tactics, the Techniques