During the early fourteenth century, the term polle entered the English language, referring to the scalp and also seen with variations such as pol, poll, pole, pow, and powe. Though the word eventually faded out of common usage, it underwent a transformation where it was first used metonymically to represent “people”, and later evolved to refer to “counting people” by the seventeenth century. This is the fascinating origin story of the word poll, which has persisted in usage over the years. But the story doesn’t end there! From polle also came another noun, poleax, as the weapon was designed for head-splitting purposes. The term originates from Middle Dutch pole, meaning “top” or “summit”, which can be traced back to Proto-Germanic pullaz, signifying a “rounded object”. Ultimately, this is linked to a Proto-Indo-European root resembling bolno, with the meaning of “orb”.
