poindre

Forms

poindre^[1] Old French puindre, later poindre.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also had poyndre and poigner.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French puindre, inherited from Latin pungō (“to prick, to torment”).^{[2][3][5][1][6]} The Latin verb belongs with the noun punctus (“a pricking”), and Rey connects it with an Indo-European root meaning “to strike”, the same as in pugnus (“fist”), the source of poing.^[3][2]

Cognate with Italian pungere, Old Occitan ponher, Catalan punyir and Spanish pungir.^[7][8] From the participle poignant modern French made a new infinitive poigner “to prick”, according to Tobler, cited by Meyer-Lübke.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, as puindre in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), means “to prick, spur (a horse)”: Puint le cheval.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to prick” was still recorded by Miège in 1688 but has otherwise been lost since the 17th century, except in the proverb oignez vilain, il vous poindra; poignez vilain, il vous oindra, found from Rabelais on.^[2][5][3] La Bruyère already remarked that usage had preferred piquer to poindre.^[9] The figurative sense “to torment, hurt” appears in the Roman d'Eneas (1160: Amors la point) and survives in literary style, where it seems to have gained favour again since the 19th century.^[2][3]

From the old use “to charge” (1080), drawn from the spurred horse, the intransitive verb came to mean “to appear as a point, come up”, first of beards in Chrétien's Perceval (1174–1180).^[3][2] Bloch and Wartburg date the sense “to begin to grow” to the 13th century and the use of the day that breaks to the 16th.^[5] The participle poignant first meant “sharp, stinging”, a sense still used by Buffon; its modern sense is recorded from 1704.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Puindre “to spur (a horse)” appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• 1160 – The Roman d'Eneas uses it of love that torments.^[2]
• 1174–1180 – Chrétien de Troyes uses the intransitive verb of beards that begin to show.^[2]
• 1188 – Poignans “hurting, painful” is found in Florimont.^[2]
• 16th century – It is said of the breaking day.^[5]
• 1665 – La Fontaine writes quel taon vous point ? “what has got into you?”.^[9]
• 1688 – Miège still records the sense “to prick”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To prick or sting.^[10][2][1]
2. (transitive, literary) To wound or pain someone, physically or morally: Le remords la poignait.^[10][11][2]
3. (intransitive) To begin to appear, to come up, of plants or of something small or far off: Les premières tulipes commencent à poindre.^[10][1]
4. (intransitive, literary) Of daylight, to dawn, begin to show: Le jour poignait à peine quand ils partirent.^[12][11][1]
5. (intransitive, figurative) Of a feeling or idea, to arise, begin to show.^[1][10]

Word family

• poignant

Related words

• point
• pointe
• poinçon
• pourpoint
• poing
• Latin pungō

Usage notes

The verb is defective: it is used mostly in the infinitive, the third persons of the present and imperfect, and the present participle.^[10] The old proverb oignez vilain, il vous poindra; poignez vilain, il vous oindra plays on oindre “to anoint”.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 597a
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)