poinçon

Forms

poinçon m (plural poinçons)^[1] Old French ponçon (about 1200), poinchon (about 1220), ponchon (about 1260) and pinçon (1319–1327).^[2][3][4] Middle French poençon (1309) and poinson (about 1380); poinçon from 1530 (Palsgrave).^[3][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French ponçon, from Vulgar Latin *punctiāre (“to prick”).^[4][6][7] Rey places between them a popular Latin noun, in the accusative, formed on that verb.^[2] The Grand Robert, the Petit Robert and Littré start from the Latin noun punctiō (“a pricking”), which Littré says changed from an abstract to a concrete noun.^[5][8][9] The GLLF starts from a verb poincer (“to prick”), found only in the dialects.^[3] The Vulgar Latin verb is formed on punctum, the supine of pungō (“to prick”), and survives in Spanish punzar, Catalan punxar, Portuguese punçar and Italian ponzare (“to strain”).^[4][2][6] It is a doublet of ponction.^[1]

Italian punzone and Spanish punzón are formed in the same way.^[4][6][2] Rey thinks an English word borrowed from the old form ponchon may be the source of the English punch (“tool”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as ponçon about 1200, in the Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne, for a pointed tool for piercing.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The later senses come from specialised trades and likenesses of shape.^[2] About 1260 the Livre des métiers of Étienne Boileau uses ponchon for a cask holding about a feuillette, a sense the TLFi and Rey explain by an earlier tonneau à poinçon “cask gauged and marked after inspection”.^[4][2] Littré instead gives the cask its own article, of uncertain origin, comparing old names of a measure such as poçon and pochin.^[9] In carpentry pinçon named the vertical king post of a roof truss (1319–1327).^[4][2]

The goldsmiths' statutes of Paris (1355) use it for the tool that marks gold and silver work, and an inventory of 1554 for the mark itself, certifying the metal or showing where a piece came from.^[4][2] In the 16th century it also named the engraved steel original of a printing type, from which the matrices are struck (1547), and of a coin or medal (about 1550).^[2] Saint-Simon used it figuratively in 1709.^[3]

The verb poinçonner (1324, ponchonner) first meant “to draw with a poinçon”, then “to strike with a punch” (1556); its common modern sense, “to punch a ticket”, dates from the 20th century.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Ponçon appears in the Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne.^[4]
• c. 1260 – Ponchon names a cask in the Livre des métiers.^[4][2]
• 1319–1327 – Pinçon names a king post.^[4]
• 1324 – The derivative poinçonner is recorded as ponchonner.^[2]
• 1355 – The goldsmiths' statutes of Paris use it for the marking tool.^[4]
• 1530 – Palsgrave has the spelling poinçon.^[3]
• 1547 – It names a typefounder's punch.^[2]
• 1554 – It names the hallmark itself.^[4][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pointed metal tool for piercing or cutting into hard materials, an awl or bodkin; also the punch of a machine tool.^[8][4][1]
2. A steel rod with an engraved face, used to stamp objects subject to official control; a die.^[8][1]
3. The mark it leaves, especially the hallmark on gold and silver.^[4][1][2]
4. (printing) The engraved steel original of a type character, used to strike the matrices.^[2]
5. (carpentry) The king post of a roof truss.^[4][2]
6. (dated) A cask or wine measure of about a feuillette.^[4][9]

Word family

• poinçonner

Related words

• poindre
• point
• ponction
• Latin pungō

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 j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 582b
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette