pokaln.

Etymology: < German Pokal (1536 as pocal ) < Italian boccale mug, jug (1390) < post-classical Latin baucalis vessel for cooling wine or water (5th cent.; compare also bocale , bocales , bocalius , bocalus , bochallus (from 1290 in Italian sources)) < Hellenistic Greek βαύκαλις , of uncertain origin (see note). The change of initial b- to p- in German was probably influenced by a perceived folk-etymological connection with classical Latin pōculum poculum n.Hellenistic Greek βαύκαλις is probably < ancient Greek βαυκαλᾶν to lull to sleep, to nurse, perhaps < βαυ- (in βαυβᾶν to sleep, in Byzantine Greek also to lull to sleep, probably a hypocoristic formation < a reduplicated syllable /ba/ characteristic of early infantile vocalization) + a second element related to κηλεῖν to charm, beguile, especially by music ( < the same Indo-European base as hole v.²), either humorously or on account of the resemblance of the sound made when filling or emptying the vessel to a nurse's humming; an Egyptian origin has also been proposed (the word was considered by ancient authors to be Egyptian, and the corresponding diminutive form βαυκάλιον, denoting a narrow-necked vessel that gurgles when liquid is poured in or out, occurs in papyri).