also pot-luck, 1590s, "meal accepted from another and made without preparation," from pot (n.1) + luck; with notion of "one's luck or chance as to what may be in the pot." As an adjective from 1775.
Entries linking to potluck
pot n.1
"deep, circular vessel," from late Old English pott and Old French pot "pot, container, mortar" (also in erotic senses), both from a general Low Germanic (Old Frisian pott, Middle Dutch pot) and Romanic word from Vulgar Latin *pottus, which is of uncertain origin, said by Barnhart and OED to be unconnected to Late Latin potus "drinking cup." Similar Celtic words are said to be borrowed from English and French.
Specifically as a drinking vessel from Middle English. Slang meaning "large sum of money staked on a bet" is attested from 1823; that of "aggregate stakes in a card game" is from 1847, American English.
Pot roast "meat (generally beef) cooked in a pot with little water and allowed to become brown, as if roasted," is from 1881. Pot-plant is by 1816 as "plant grown in a pot." The phrase go to pot "be ruined or wasted" (16c.) suggests cooking, perhaps meat cut up for the pot. In phrases, the pot calls the kettle black-arse (said of one who blames another for what he himself is also guilty of) is from c. 1700; shit or get off the pot is traced by Partridge to Canadian armed forces in World War II. To keep the pot boiling "provide the necessities of life" is from 1650s.
luck n.
c. 1500, "fortune good or bad, what happens to one by chance (conceived as being favorable or not); good luck, quality of having a tendency to receive desired or beneficial outcomes," not found in Old English, probably from early Middle Dutch luc, shortening of gheluc "happiness, good fortune," a word of unknown origin. It has cognates in Modern Dutch geluk, Middle High German g(e)lücke, German Glück "fortune, good luck."
Perhaps first borrowed in English as a gambling term. To be down on (one's) luck is from 1832; to be in luck is from 1857; to push (one's) luck is from 1911. Good luck as a salutation to one setting off to do something is from 1805. Expression no such luck, expressing disappointment that something did not or will not happen, is by 1835. Better luck next time as an expression of encouragement in the face of disappointment is from 1858, but the expression itself is older:
A gentleman was lately walking through St Giles's, where a levelling citizen attempting to pick his pocket of a handkerchief, which the gentleman caught in time, and secured, observing to the fellow, that he had missed his aim, the latter, with perfect sang-froid, answered, "better luck next time master." [Monthly Mirror, London, September 1802]
Luck of the draw (1892) is from card-playing. In expressions often ironical, as in just (my) luck (1909). To be out of luck is from 1789; to have one's luck run out is from 1966.