pocket [ME] The first sense recorded for pocket was a ‘bag, sack’. It comes from Anglo-Norman French poket(e), a little poke or pouch (see pig). This probably also lies behind poach [ME]. Poaching eggs and poaching game may seem vastly different activities, but they are both probably connected with the Old French word pochier or French pocher, ‘to enclose in a bag’. When you poach an egg you can think of the white of the egg as forming a pocket or bag for the yolk to cook in. The second poach first meant ‘to push together in a heap’, and acquired the ‘steal game’ sense in the late 16th century. The connection with the source word comes from the pocket or bag into which a poacher would stuff his ill-gotten gains. Pucker [L16th] is probably from the same source, with the little gatherings being seen as small pockets.