Meaning

noun a mischievous sprite of English folklore

noun a vulcanized rubber disk 3 inches in diameter that is used instead of a ball in ice hockey

originFrom puck (“mischievous spirit”), from Middle English pouke, from Old English pūca (“goblin, demon”), from Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pāug(')- (“brilliance, spectre”). Cognate with Icelandic púki, dialectal Swedish puke (“devil”), Middle Low German spūk (“apparition, ghost”), German Spuk (“a haunting”). More at spook.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0