pungente

Forms

pungente m or f (masculine and feminine plural pungentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pungēns (“pricking, stinging”), the present participle of pungō (“to prick, pierce”).^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it among the learned derivatives of the Latin verb, beside pungir, punción and compungir, under punto.^[4][5] The older dictionaries treated it as the present participle of that verb.^[6][7]

The Latin verb belongs with pūgnus (“fist”) and pūgna (“fight”), and de Vaan discusses whether the nasal present goes back to a root ending in /g/ or in /k/.^[8] The same Latin participle is Italian pungente.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is from 1450, in the anonymous Cuatro oraciones a la República de Florencia, where love of one's country should be a muy pungente estímulo “a very sharp spur” to its defenders.^[10] About the same time a surgical treatise speaks of a dolor pungente, a stabbing pain, and the word is common in the medical translations of the 1490s, of a pungent taste or smoke.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Corominas dates the word only from 1541 (Alvar Gómez), but the CDH has it a century earlier.^[4][4][10] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as what wounds with a point, quoting Guevara's pungentes espinas “pricking thorns”.^[6] From 1843 the Academy referred it to punzante.^[11] It was always a literary word, used of pain both physical and moral.^[2][12] In Ecuador it describes a strong, penetrating smell or taste.^[13]

Timeline

• 1450 – first record, in the Cuatro oraciones a la República de Florencia.^[10]
• a. 1450 – a dolor pungente in the Arte complida de cirugía.^[10]
• 1494 – a herb with a sabor pungente in the translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[10]
• 1541 – the first record the DCECH gives, from Alvar Gómez.^[4]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes Guevara's pungentes espinas.^[6]
• 1791 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary) That pricks (pungir) or can prick; punzante, piercing; also figuratively, of grief or love.^[15][2][1]
2. (Ecuador) Of a smell or taste, pungent, penetrating.^[13]

Word family

• pungencia

Related words

• pungir
• punzante
• compungir
• punción
• Latin pungō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pungente
3. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 880
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 693
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. punto
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 431
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 644
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 1012
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pungente
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 599
12. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pungente
13. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pungente
14. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. pungente
15. ^ 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. pungente