What is the origin of the word "poop"?

If you google etymology and poop,
it says that it comes from poupen or popen.
Meaning something like to fart or to blow.
Supposedly its origins are Middle English.

Same as @Nimis from the Online Etymological Dictionary:

poop (n.2)
“excrement,” 1744, a children’s euphemism, probably of imitative origin; cf. the same word in the sense “to break wind softly,” attested from 1721, earlier “to make a short blast on a horn” (late 14c.).

Who would have thought it was onomatopoeic?

@zenvelo Wouldn’t it be more suitable that instead of “poop” it could be something like “bloorp” to be onomatopoeic? Lol.

Here is the correct origin.

I suspect that the origin for “the word” (although maybe not with its current meaning) is much earlier than you suppose.

In nautical terms, the “poop deck” is the rearmost upper deck on a ship. And when a ship is “pooped” (yes, this is a legitimate nautical term) it means that a following wave has broken upon the poop deck. It’s a serious situation that threatens to founder any ship, because when you’re in “pooping” seas it means that you’ve nearly lost control of the vessel.

I’m just guessing here, but maybe there’s some relationship between the “rear” aspect of the vessel… nah, that’s probably not it. Who knows where it got changed to “defecation”? (I don’t believe any rumor that sailors in olden days would hang their asses over the edge of the “poop” deck to take care of that business, but it’s possible.)

Sounds much better that sh*t or fu*k. Several forums I use have this word replacing these words. Might sound awkward at first but it’s a nicer way to censor them.

In Dutch poepen means defacating, in Belgian defacating is kakken.
Poepen in Belgian means fucking and it apparently comes from the word poppen (which comes from met poppen spelen (playing with dolls),they assume that petting the dolls and lovemaking with the dolls (the dolls with each other) lead to the meaning of poepen (fucking).
Poep without -en in Belgian means ass.
A funny scene some years ago on the Belgian television.
A reporter asked couples on the street about their sexual life.
The couple were asked, apart from each other, some questions.
The guy was asked when they had sex the last time, and where “Yesterday, in the kitchen” was his answer.
Then the woman was asked the same questions to see if their answers were the same or not.
She answered “Yesterday”.
Where?“I will not answer that, no way.”
C’mon, your husband did too.
So, where? “Errrr…..., in my poep.”

@CWOTUS
from wordorigins.com: The poop is the stern of a ship and the poop deck is the raised deck in the aft of old sailing ships. The word comes from the Latin puppis, meaning stern, via French. English use of poop dates to the late 15th century. From William Caxton’s 1489 translation of The Book of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyualrye:
The pouppe whiche is the hindermost partye of the shippe.

Defecate is, from the online etymology dictionary: 1570s, “to purify,” from L. defaecatus, pp. of defaecare “cleanse from dregs, purify,” from the phrase de faece “from dregs” (pl. faeces; see feces). Excretory sense first recorded 1830 (defecation), Amer.Eng., from French.

I knew we could get a good answer from a linguaphile.

I cannot bear this word for some reason. I much prefer s**t.

@stardust Me too