这种类似于台球的游戏大约在1808年出现;其名称可能源自早期的 pool,意指“参与游戏的人们组合在一起,每人都下注一笔钱”,这种用法在1690年代的纸牌游戏中已有记录。与两人台球不同,桌球游戏通常需要多位玩家;pool 可能既指这个玩家群体,也指他们所下注的钱。
这个词来自法语 poule,意为“赌注、战利品、掠夺物”,其具体来源尚不明确。它的意义演变可能与 poule 在口语或谚语中用作“母鸡”有关(源自古法语 poille,参见 pullet)。早期英语中拼写为 pooile(1610年代),也可能暗示法语中的 peuille,意为“新铸币切割下来的样本”,据说是因为它们被包裹的方式而得名,与英语中的 pall (n.) 具有相同的拉丁语词源。
OF THE GAME.
It must be played with coloured balls, or with balls numbered seriatim, and with as many as there are players; or it may be played with two balls only; but the first method is most in vogue.
ROTATION. Each player is permitted to have three lives at the commencement; first of all paying his stake to the marker immediately upon his receiving his ball. The white ball, or No. 1, is to begin by placing his ball on the winning and losing spot No. 2 to play at No. 1 and all the players in regular succession as they must of necessity be marked upon the board, playing at the last player until a life be lost, and then the nearest ball is to be played at.
[Colonel B*****, "How to Play Billiards and Pool," 1842]
关于游戏的规则。
游戏必须使用彩色球,或者使用编号球 seriatim,并且球的数量要与玩家人数相同;也可以只用两个球进行游戏,但第一种方法最为流行。
轮流制。每位玩家在开始时被允许拥有三条命;首先,他必须在接到球后立即将赌注支付给记分员。白球或编号1的球应放在胜负点编号2上,以便击打编号1的球,所有玩家按顺序进行游戏,直到某位玩家失去一条命,然后再击打离他最近的球。
[B****上校,《如何玩台球和桌球》,1842年]
Billiards, a fascinating and destructive game, is equally universal ; I mean not the general game, but a species commonly called pool, which is played at almost every table ; our youth haunt these places with unaccountable eagerness, and stake large deposits on the uncertainty of a few minutes. ["The Eye," Philadelphia, March 24, 1808]
台球,这个既迷人又具有破坏性的游戏,几乎在每个地方都有人玩;我指的不是一般的台球,而是一种通常被称为 pool 的变种,几乎在每张桌子上都能看到。我们的年轻人对这些地方表现出难以理解的热情,愿意在短短几分钟的不确定性上下注巨额赌注。[《眼睛》,费城,1808年3月24日]
“共同资源池”的含义出现在1917年。“共享职责或技能的群体”(如 typist pool 等)这一用法始于1920年。1933年,这个词被用作 football pool(足球博彩)的缩写。
Pool shark 这个词组出现在1898年。短语 dirty pool 意为“阴险或不道德的行为”,尤其是在政治领域(1951年),可能源自这款游戏。然而,dirty pool of politics 这一表达早在1871年就已被记录,并在20世纪初就已被广泛使用,描绘了 pool (n.1) 的形象。