Old English pottere

Old English pottere, recorded as a nonce occurrence in a tenth-century char ter bound is generally associated with OE pott(t) "a pot" and taken to repr esent the etymon of ModE potter. The interpretation is, however, open to qu estion. As association with OE potian "to push, thrust, strike, butt" is at least equally plausible on both formal and contextual grounds, while onoma stic evidence indicates that the occupational term is more likely to have e ntered Middle English from Old French.