Poll

Poll - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

POLL, n.

1. The head of a person, or the back part of the head, and in composition, applied to the head of a beast, as in poll-evil.

2. A register of heads, that is, of persons.

3. The entry of the names of electors who vote for civil officers. Hence,

4. An election of civil officers, or the place of election.

Our citizens say, at the opening or close of the poll, that is, at the beginning of the register of voters and reception of votes, or the close of the same. They say also, we are going to the poll; many voters appeared at the poll.

5. A fish called a chub or chevin. [See Pollard.]

POLL, v.t. To lop the tops of trees.

1. To clip; to cut off the ends; to cut off hair or wool; to shear. The phrases, to poll the hair, and to poll the head, have been used. The latter is used in 2 Sam 14:26. To poll a deed, is a phrase still used in law language.

2. To mow; to crop. [Not used.]

3. To peel; to strip; to plunder.

4. To take a list or register of persons; to enter names in a list.

5. To enter one's name in a list or register.

6. To insert into a number as a voter.

pol: The word (on the derivation of which see Skeat, Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 360) has been eliminated as a verb in the American Standard Revised Version. In the King James Version and English Revised Version it represents the Hebrew verbs kacam, literally "to shear" (Eze 44:20), gazaz, literally, "to pull out," "to uproot," thence "to shear the sheep," figuratively, "to destroy an enemy" (Mic 1:16), galach, in Piel, literally, "to make bald or roundheaded" (2Sa 14:26) and qatsats, "to cut off" (Jer 9:26; 25:23; 49:32). The Hebrew noun is gulgoleth. As will be seen from the above enumeration, the Hebrew verb differ considerably in etymology, while Revised Version has not tried to distinguish. In Mic 1:16 we have a reference to the oriental custom of cutting or tearing one's hair as a sign of mourning for one's relatives. "Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair (King James Version and English Revised Version "poll thee," Hebrew gazaz) for the children of thy delight: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle (margin "vulture"); for they are gone into captivity from thee." The priests, the sons of Zadok, are instructed to abstain from outward resemblance to heathen patterns of priesthood: "Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only cut off the hair (the King James Version and the English Revised Version, "poll," Hebrew kacam) of their heads" (Eze 44:20). The Piel form of galach is employed in the description of the annual hair-cutting of Absalom (2Sa 14:26). Thrice we find the verb "to poll" as the translation of Hebrew qatsats, where the American Standard Revised Version materially improves the translation by adopting the marginal version of the King James Version (Jer 9:26; 25:23; 49:32).

See HAIR.

The noun (gulgoleth, lit. "head") is translated "poll" in the phrase "by the poll," "by their polls" (Nu 1:2,18,20,22; 3:47; 1Ch 23:3,14). The expression has its origin in the numbering of persons by their heads, in the same way in which we speak of head-tax, etc.

H. L. E. Luering