You would think we could all immediately agree on a definition for the term “pool,” as building these structures has been part of our design heritage for more than 4,000 years — and the foundation of a modern industry since at least the early years of the last century.

Before we get there, however, we need to consider a collection of splinter terms and either accept or dismiss their place within a class of possibilities before we get to any single definition. There are, for example, pools for competition, pools in which waves are generated and reflecting pools — not to mention lap pools and wading pools and, of course, swimming pools. Some municipalities also apply the term kiddie or play pool to “bathing environments” intended for children’s play that are no more than 24 inches deep. And lest we forget, there’s also terminology related to materials and processes of construction in the form of inground, fiberglass, vinyl-liner, aboveground and inflatable pools.

Speaking for myself, the only problems I see here are with reflecting pools and wading pools, both of which might be too shallow for recreation (although reflecting pools certainly can be quite deep depending on the project – and, while I’m at it, can there be such a thing as a pool that is not by design or default a “reflecting pool” simply by virtue of containing a reflective medium?).

In an attempt to encompass all of this and much more, allow me to offer the following definition:

Pool — a watershape designed explicitly for human or animal immersion for recreational and/or therapy purposes.

I welcome your suggestions and comments.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Coming to Terms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.