The sense ‘poetry contest’ refers to a thirteenth-century continental French custom, which at some point, presumably in the fourteenth century, seems to have made its way to London, as a detailed description of its rules and regulations there is preserved in Lib Cust 216-28. Etymologically, this particular usage is believed to derive from the original sense ‘platform elevation’, on which these contests were presumably held.

The word which appears in English as pew is etymologically the same, but does not have the same meanings.