DCHP-1 Online

poke ((2)) 2 [see note] North

• 1 n. a sealskin bag used as a buoy or float.

  See also: dan (def 1.)  

  • This word appears to have come into northern use via Eskimo poq, puq bag; perhaps borrowed from early whalers in this sense.

  • 1931  Formerly the Eskimos killed walruses with spears. The spear would not kill them outright, of course, but attached to it was a long sealskin line at the end of which was fastened an inflated sealskin bag called a pok.

• 2 n. a sealskin bag used by Eskimos for storing or transporting seal or whale oil.

  See also: dan (def. 2)  

  • 1924  On a large staging we see a number of seals, pokes of seal oil, a green polar bear skin and other . . . articles.
  • 1946  . . . these pokes when filled with blubber weighed from 150 to 200 pounds.