Talk:poll

Pronunciation (homographs)
It appears that a 'poll' as in a parrot has a 'dog' sound.zigzig20s 18:17, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's an abbreviation of Polly, but perhaps that definition should be at Poll. Kappa 02:42, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Poll: Lacking horns
in Agriculture, poll indicates lacking horns - see article on wikipedia, Poll Merino.

Not sure of how to add meanings etc to wiktionary.

Wikipedia user: GarrieIrons. 203.102.161.75 02:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I've added that sense: Kappa 02:42, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Poll: part of head
Horses and cattle have a poll, essentially the crown of their heads. See this. I am not sure under which etymology to add this. --66.167.43.138 01:27, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Needs adjective reference
I noticed that this definition lacks a reference to the adjective form "polled", meaning: livestock (esp. cattle) that are hornless.

Additionally, this could be cross-referenced to the Wiktionary definition for "muley", which is an archaic synonym for "polled". Saukkomies 13:32, 14 March 2010 (UTC)


 * polled: is just the past participle of the verb poll:. All participles can be used attributively, which is just one use of adjectives.
 * To show it as a true adjective we would need to see usage of it showing it as gradable ("too polled", "very polled"), comparable {"more polled than"), or usable as a predicate after a copulative verb ("become polled"). Are you familiar with such usage? DCDuring TALK 19:39, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

RFC discussion: January 2007–December 2010
(from RFV) The sense "hair" - this has a citation so seems OK, but is it under the right etymology? &mdash; Paul G 10:13, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
 * That's not a simple question to answer. The OED etymologies for poll are convoluted in the extreme.  Appparently there were once several words spelled "poll" in various senses and origins; these led to several derived terms; these then collapsed back into the form poll, but the details are complicated.  We're also missing many, many definitions of this word. Note that the Poll page is currently a redirect to poll. --EncycloPetey 16:03, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
 * The poll tax article at Wikipedia mentions that "poll" once meant "head". It seems like a bit of a stretch to say that Stephenson meant "head" in this cite, but to me it clouds the "hair" definition a bit. Afiler 16:11, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Someone has dealt with this, so that the "hair" sense is under the "hair" etymology. — Beobach 21:22, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

RFV discussion: April 2011–January 2012
Adjective: (of livestock) bred without horns (when horned is normal for the breed).

Quite plausible, but no citations and not found in OneLook dictionaries or in Century. Possibly to be found collocating within a word or two of cattle or cattle breeds. DCDuring TALK 19:13, 8 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Two cites added, although I'm finding Poll with a cap and Polled. A capitalised Poll is very common as part of a breed name, such as Poll Hereford and Poll Angus.--Dmol 20:11, 8 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I think "polled" means that the natural horns were removed by polling vs. "poll" meaning they don't normally grow for the breed. Now that I think of it, the inclusion in a breed name should count, especially if there is a cite that defines the breed as hornless. DCDuring TALK 21:52, 8 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't think the citations in the entry (by this sense) are durably archived. However, durable citations probably exist of breed names. - -sche (discuss) 03:20, 19 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Passed, with one three quotations and two links to widely-discussed breeds (Red Poll and Poll Hereford). - -sche (discuss) 01:29, 30 January 2012 (UTC) - -sche (discuss) 01:33, 30 January 2012 (UTC)