pointe

Etymology

It is borrowed from French pointe (“tip, point”),^[2][3][4][5] a specific use of the French word for a point or sharp end,^[2][3][6] as in pointe du pied (“tiptoe, extremity of the foot”).^[7][8][9] The OED compares the French phrase avoir des pointes, said in 1840 of a dancer able to rise onto the tips of the toes.^[2] The French noun goes back to Old French pointe (“point of a weapon”), from Medieval Latin puncta (“sharp tip”), the feminine past participle of Latin pungō (“to prick, pierce”), which also gave point.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tip of the toe, and rising onto the tips of the toes, in ballet: the revised OED's first quotation is from the Musical World of 21 November 1846,^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates the word to 1846.^[3] The 1989 edition of the OED and Etymonline give 1830,^[11][10] a quotation that the revised OED now files under point.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In English the same idea was also expressed with the native point: the OED treats on pointe as equal to on point in dancing.^[2] Besides the tip of the toe, the word came to mean the act of rising onto the toes^[2] and a dance movement executed on them,^[5] and the American Heritage Dictionary defines it as dancing done on the tips of the toes.^[12]

Timeline

• 1846 – the tip of the toe; rising onto the tips of the toes.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. In ballet, the extreme tip of the toe.^[3][13][5]
2. A position in which the body is balanced on the tips of the toes.^[3][8]
3. Dancing done on the tips of the toes, or a movement made in this way.^[12][5]
4. on pointe: on the tips of the toes: The whole troupe rose on pointe at the final chord.^[2][13]

Related words

• point
• puncture
• pungent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins