puñar

Forms

puñar (first-person singular present puño, first-person singular preterite puñé, past participle puñado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pugnō (“to fight”), the popular counterpart of the learned pugnar.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas treats it in his article on puño “fist”, and notes that the verb survived in a more or less popular form in Old Spanish, as it did in the other medieval Romance languages of Gaul and Iberia.^[2] Some manuscripts of Berceo spell it punar, without the palatal.^[2][3]

The same verb is Old Galician-Portuguese punhar, Catalan punyar, Old Occitan ponhar and Old French poignier.^[5][6] García de Diego also records the form with /n/ in Asturian, and calls the Castilian form with /gn/ a learned word.^[6]

The Latin verb is formed from pugnus (“fist”).^[7][1] Wiktionary takes the noun back to *pugnos and to *pewǵ- (“to prick, punch”), the root also of pungō (“to prick”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (1220–1250), in the sense “to strive, persist”: en esto contendia e en esto punnaba “in this he contended and in this he strove”.^[8][2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the verb meant above all “to strive, to persist in an effort”, as in Juan Ruiz's advice puña en quanto puedas “strive as much as you can”.^[2][8] The Academy's dictionaries also give the senses “to fight” and “to attack a place with weapons”.^[9][4]

From the end of the Middle Ages the learned pugnar took its place; that form is the regular one in the Quijote.^[2][3] Terreros already calls puñar antiquated and equates it with pugnar, and Salvá in 1846 lists the senses “to fight” and “to work hard, persist” as old ones.^[10][11] The current DLE marks all three senses as no longer in use.^[4]

Asturian still has puñar for an animal butting with its horns and, colloquially, for a person being very angry.^[12] Corominas thinks the Asturian interjection of annoyance ¡puno! comes from the old verb.^[2]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses the verb, as punnaba and punar in different manuscripts of the Milagros.^[2][3]
• c. 1250 – punar in the Bocados de oro.^[13]
• 1605 – the learned pugnar is regular in the Quijote.^[3][2]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros labels puñar antiquated.^[10]
• 1846 – Salvá gives the senses “to fight” and “to work hard, persist”, both marked old.^[11]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary gives three senses, all marked old.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To attack a place with weapons.^[4]
2. (obsolete) To fight, to do battle.^[4][1]
3. (obsolete) To strive hard for something important or difficult: Puñaban por salvar la villa.^[4]

Related words

• pugnar
• puño
• Latin pugnō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 696
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puño
4. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. puñar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6813
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pugnare
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. s.v. pugnar
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. puñar
10. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 245
11. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 899
12. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. puñar
13. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. punar