8 April 2021
A poke is a sack or bag, and to buy a pig in a poke is to purchase something sight unseen. The phrase is confusing to some because this sense of poke is now rare and, other than in this phrase, is not part of most people’s vocabulary; in the United States the word is chiefly found in the Midland dialect, especially in Appalachia.
We don’t know the exact etymology of the English word poke meaning a bag or sack. It dates to the early medieval period and appears in a number of European languages about the same time, so who borrowed what from whom is a bit muddled. The possibilities are that it is:
from the Anglo-Norman poke (modern French poche), which would make it cognate with pouch
from an unattested Old Dutch word (in Middle Dutch poke meant a bag or measure of wool)
from the Old English pohha / Northumbrian pocca, from the Old Norse poki
from some combination of the above.
An example of the Old English pohha can be found in the Macregol or Rushworth Gospels, a Latin copy of the gospels produced before 822 C. E. by Macregol, an Irish bishop and scribe. (In the seventeenth century, John Rushworth donated the manuscript to the Bodleian Library, hence that name.) An Old English, interlinear translation was added in the late tenth century. The text of Luke 9:3 reads:
Portion of an eighth-century, Latin gospel (the Macgregol Gospel) showing Luke 9:3 with a tenth-century Old English interlinear gloss that contains an early use of poke (Old English pohha) on the fourth line
Et ait ad illos nihil tolleretis in uia neque uirgam neque peram neque panem neque peccuniam neque duos tunicas abetis
& cwæð to ðæm noht ginime iow on woege ne in gerde ne in pohha ne hlafas ne feh ne twoege cyrtlas habbas ge.
(& he said to them, “Take nothing with you on the journey, neither staff, nor poke, nor bread, nor money, nor should you have two garments)
The relevant Latin word in the above is peram, the accusative of pera, a satchel or bag.
The form poke appears by the early thirteenth century. Here is an example from a listing of tolls due to the lord of Torksey for goods that were passing on the river Trent, although it’s not clear whether the poke here is English or Anglo-Norman. The text is primarily French, but some words, such as mailede, are Middle English:
i fraiello de vaddo iiii d.
i poke de alum i d.
i pak mailede iiii d.(1 basket of woad 4 d.
1 poke of alum 1 d.
1 tied bundle 4 d.)
But it appears unambiguously in Middle English in the romance Havelok the Dane. The poem was composed c. 1285, and the primary manuscript was copied sometime 1300–25. The passage is speaking of the fisherman Grim, who saved the life of and then adopted the child Havelok, the rightful king of Denmark:
Thanne he com thenne he were blithe,
For hom he brouthe fele sithe
Wastels, simenels with the horn,
His pokes fulle of mele and korn,
Netes flesh, shepes and swines;
And hemp to maken of gode lines,
And stronge ropes to hise netes,
In the se weren he ofte setes.(Then he came from there, he was happy
For he brought home many times
Cakes, horn-shaped bread,
His pokes full of meal and grain,
Meat from cattle, sheep, and swine;
And hemp to make good lines,
And strong ropes for his netes
In the sea where he often set them.)
Pokes are associated with pigs by the end of the fourteenth century. Geoffrey Chaucer uses both words in the same line, albeit not in the form of the familiar gnomic utterance. From the Reeve’s Tale, written c. 1390. In this passage, the miller has just discovered one of the students has been sleeping with his daughter and is about to discover that another has been sleeping with his wife:
“A, false traitour! False clerk!" quod he,
"Thow shalt be deed, by Goddes dignitee!
Who dorste be so boold to disparage
My doghter, that is come of swich lynage?"
And by the throte-bolle he caughte Alayn,
And he hente hym despitously agayn,
And on the nose he smoot hym with his fest.
Doun ran the blody streem upon his brest;
And in the floor, with nose and mouth tobroke,
They walwe as doon two pigges in a poke;
And up they goon, and doun agayn anon,
Til that the millere sporned at a stoon,
And doun he fil bakward upon his wyf,
That wiste no thyng of this nyce stryf;
For she was falle aslepe a lite wight
With John the clerk, that waked hadde al nyght,(“Ah, false traitor! False clerk!,” said he,
“You shall be dead by God’s dignity!
Who dared to be so bold to degrade
My daughter, who has come from such a lineage?”
And by the Adam’s apple he caught Alayn,
And he seized him angrily in turn,
And he hit him on the nose with his fist.
Down ran the bloody stream upon his chest;
And on the floor, with nose and mouth broken,
They wallow as do two pigs in a poke;
And up they go, and down again straight away,
Until the miller stumbled on a stone,
And down he fell backward upon his wife,
Who knew nothing of this foolish strife;
For she had fallen asleep for a short while
With John the clerk, who had been awake all night.)
But the gnomic phrase gets its start even earlier. The earliest instance of something similar is from the Proverbs of Hending. This is a collection of proverbs that exists in several versions. This particular one is from Cambridge, University Library MS Gg.1.1. and was probably composed c. 1250. The manuscript dates to before 1325:
What ich þe ᵹeve. take hit sone,
For ᵹef þou bidist til aftir none,
For tu wost me trewe,
Wiltou, niltou, þar mai rise
Letting in ful mani a wise,
Eft hit wil þe rewe.
“Wan man ᵹevit þe a pig, opin þe powch.”
Quod Hending.(What I give you, take it right away,
For if you ask until after noon—
For you know me to be true—
Willy nilly, there may arise
Hindrances in very many ways,
Afterward, you will regret it.
“When a man gives you a pig, open the pouch.”
Said Hending.)
Not only does it use pouch instead of poke, but here the context suggests the meaning is somewhat different from the phrase we know today. The mythical Hending is advising that one take delivery and inspect the merchandise immediately upon payment, because if you wait, events may prevent you from taking delivery of the goods.
By the mid fifteenth century, we see both poke and the present-day meaning of the phrase, although it is worded slightly differently. From another collection of gnomic utterances found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 52:
When me profereth þe pigge, opon þe pogh;
For when he is an olde swyn, thow tyte hym nowᵹht.
Cum tibi porcellum prebet quis, pande saccellum;
Cum fuerit porcus, non erit ipse tuus.(When me[n] proffer a pig to you, open the poke;
For if it is an old swine, you should not take it.)
Finally, by 1555 we see the proverb in the form we’re most familiar with it today. From a John Heywood’s Two Hundred Epigrammes:
I wyll neuer bye the pyg in the poke:
Thers many a foule pyg in a feyre cloke.
It is often claimed that the phrase about buying a pig in a poke refers to a scam in which a cat or other inedible animal would be substituted for a pig. As we can see from the phrase’s history above, that is not the case. The phrase is simply an admonition to inspect the merchandise before you buy. No elaborate scams or schemes are needed.
Sources:
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Reeve’s Tale.” The Canterbury Tales. Lines 1.4269–84. Harvard’s Geoffrey Chaucer Website.
Dictionary of American Regional English, 2013, s. v. poke, n.1.
Förster, Max. “Die Mittelenglische Sprichwörtersamlung in Douce 52.” Festschrift zum XII Allgemeinen Deutschen Neuphilologentage in München, Pfingsten, 1906. Erlangen: Junge, 1906, 54. HathiTrust Digital Archive. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 52.
Gras, Norman S. B. “An Inquisition Showing the System of Local Customs at Torksey, 1228.” The Early English Customs System. Harvard Economic Studies 18. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1918, 157. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Havelok the Dane. In Four Romances of England: King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston. Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Drake, and Eve Salisbury, eds. TEAMS Middle English Text Series. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997, lines 778–85. Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Laud Misc. 108.
Heywood, John. Two Hundred Epigrammes. London: T. Berthelet, 1555, sig. B.2v. Early English Books Online (EEBO).
Middle English Dictionary, 2019, s. v. poke n.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2021, s. v. pig, n.1; December 2020, poke, n.1.
Skeat, Walter W. The Gospel According to Saint Luke in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Versions. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1874, 95. HathiTrust Digital Archive. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D.2.19, fol. 96r.
Tréguer, Pascal. “The Authentic Origin of ‘to buy a pig in a poke.’” Wordhistories.net, 2 January 2017.
Varnhagen, Hermann. “Zu Mittelenglischen Gedichten.” Anglia, 4, 1881, 188–89. HathiTrust Digital Archive. Cambridge, University Library MS Gg.1.1.
Image credit: The Macregol (Rushworth) Gospel, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D. 2. 19, Digital Bodleian.