We all hate them. They show up uninvited, lurking just below the surface, ready to ruin your morning commute, destroy your suspension or launch your coffee into your lap. Yep, I’m talking about potholes—those nasty, tire-munching craters that turn everyday roads into off-roading adventures.
But have you ever actually wondered why they’re called potholes? It’s such a weirdly specific word. Are pots involved? Was there a hole-to-pot ratio requirement? The name sounds like it should have something to do with cooking. Spoiler: It kinda does, but not in the way you might think.
To get the whole story on these nasty holes in the road, I reached out to Laurel Brinton, PhD, professor emerita at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Let’s dig in (pun intended) to find the answer.
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Which popular pothole origin story isn’t actually true?
The most popular origin story for the word pothole involves pottery and Ancient Rome. Supposedly, potters who needed clay to make their pots scraped chunks of clay out of well-traveled roads, leaving behind dangerous little craters. And these holes, left by pot makers, were dubbed potholes.
Cute story, right? Unfortunately, it’s not true. “That seems very far-fetched,” says Brinton. “I have trouble believing it.”
Though the connection to pot-making emerged later as a folk explanation, it’s not the true etymology. That said, the Romans did build a ton of roads, and some of those roads did degrade in ways similar to modern potholes. So it’s not completely outrageous—just inaccurate.
There are a few other baseless tales floating around to “explain” how potholes got their name. These include:
- Medieval clay thieves. This is just like the Roman story but centuries later.
- Damage by cannonballs. They may have caused damage to roads, but that doesn’t explain the word pothole.
- Damage by wagon wheel. Again, a possible cause of an actual pothole but not the word.
Alas, none of these theories holds any water. “I’d be skeptical of all those stories,” Brinton says. Unlike other colorful words and phrases—like break a leg, spill the beans and take it with a grain of salt—pothole doesn’t have a very interesting origin.
How did potholes really get their name?
The true origin of the word pothole is just linguistics, according to Brinton. “Pot is an Old English word meaning ‘a deep vessel.'” And hole is from the Old English hol, which means “hollow place.” Per the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), pothole is formed by compounding the two.
It’s so simple that, Brinton says, “I don’t know why so many stories arose about this word.” But why do we use that word to describe a road depression?
A rocky start
Starting in the early 19th century, per the OED, the word pothole was employed to describe “a cylindrical or deep bowl-shaped hole of natural origin”—say, “a hole formed by the wearing away of rock by the rotation of stones in running water.”
In 1826’s Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes, T.L. McKenney wrote: “The waters were once, in many places, some fifty feet above their present level; for their action upon the rocks is plainly seen in the potholes, as the excavations are called, which are made by the action of pebbles upon the rocks.”
Because these indentations resembled cooking vessels, they took on the name potholes.
From nature to nuisance
Eventually, as roads became more commonplace and more prone to wear and tear, people started using pothole to describe similar-looking holes in roads. By 1889, per the OED, the meaning of the word pothole had been extended to describe “a depression or hollow forming a defect in the surface of a road.”
These man-made holes echoed the natural formations in shape and function: They were deep, round and generally annoying. Those holes in the road surface may have been caused by water damage and other weather-related issues, or they could have been a result of horse and wagon traffic. Once automobiles entered the picture, the wear and tear on roads and the number of potholes only increased.
Are potholes and chuckholes the same thing?
Two words, same meaning: a depression or hole in a roadway caused by weather, traffic or time. Though chuckhole first appears in the OED in 1836 (just 10 years after pothole), you’ll probably hear chuckhole only in parts of the Midwest and South. Pothole is the preferred term in most of the country.
Are there any other words that also mean pothole?
You might also hear terms like:
- Road crater (used more casually or in humorous contexts)
- Car killer (OK, not official, but accurate)
- Surface depression (a more technical or engineering term)
How has pothole evolved beyond its original meaning?
Today, pothole doesn’t refer only to literal road damage you hope to avoid. It has evolved metaphorically to describe unexpected problems or setbacks you’d rather avoid in life, according to Brinton. Some examples:
- “We hit a few potholes in the project timeline.”
- “Their relationship hit a pothole.”
- “She hit a pothole in her recovery, but she’s back on track.”
So the next time you hit a pothole—literally or metaphorically—just remember: It’s not the result of rogue Roman potters. It’s a simple word with a deep (and occasionally jarring) history. And while we can’t always dodge them, at least now you can dig into their origin with confidence.
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Sources:
- Laurel Brinton, professor emerita at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada; phone interview, July 21, 2025
- Online Etymology Dictionary: “Pothole”
- Oxford English Dictionary: “Pothole”
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