A sort of fungus. The word is a corruption of Puck or Pouk ball, anciently called Puck-fist. The Irish name is Pooka-foot. (Saxon, Pulkerfist, a toadstool.) Shakespeare alludes to this superstition when Prosʹpero summons amongst his elves—
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“You whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms.”
Shakespeare: Tempest, v. 1.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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