Starters
 

Andrew wrote:

> I very much doubt that the word is French. The term is, of
> course, used by bread makers here (as it is elsewhere) but is
> otherwise not a current term in French.
>
> It is not in the "Petit Robert" (the French equivalent of the
> Webster's or the OED) either, and the double vowel combination "oo"
> and the consonants "sh" are also not French.
>
> I suspect that it is in French, as in English, a borrowed
> word from somewhere else - perhaps Eastern Europe?

Well, I'm pretty sure American bakers borrowed the term from French bakers?
As far as where the French got the term ...

>From what I've read (primarily Jeff Hammelman's "Bread" and Peter Reinhart's
"Bread Baker's Apprentice"), it seems the term came into use because it was
believed that the technique was developed by a Polish baker. I've also read
that the technique was developed in Vienna and brought to France in the late
19th / early 20th century. Why it's called "poolish" instead of "polonais,"
I have no idea.

Here's the French Wikipedia entry: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poolish
Unfortunately, no info on origins. I did a couple of searches, and came up
with nothing there.

--
Jeff