pointer

pointer¹ mark, aim

Pronunciation

• /pwɛ̃.te/^[1]

Forms

pointer^[1] Old French pointer, pointier;^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also poynter, ponter.^[2][3]

Etymology

The verb is formed from French point + -er in most senses (marking, sewing, checking);^[3][4][1] the senses “to stab” and “to stick out” are formed on pointe.^[3][4][5] The Grand Robert accordingly has two verbs, one from each noun (late 12th and mid-15th century, with a phrase meaning “to push forward” about 1360).^[4][6]

Littré compares Occitan ponchar, Catalan punxar, Spanish punzar and Italian puntare, and notes Old French pointeer and pointoyer beside Italian punteggiare.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman de Horn (1170) uses it for stitching on cloth;^[3] the Anglo-Norman Dictionary glosses the early verb as “to prick, pierce” and “to punctuate”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From pricking cloth (1170) and quilting (1380) the verb came to mean marking with a point: names on a list for checking (1499, Trévoux again in 1752), a ship's position on a chart (pointer la carte, 1643) and, in music, a dotted note (note pointée, 1691).^[3] In 1935 it is used of recording workers' hours of arrival and departure on a time clock, and zéro pointé is from 1959.^[3]

The senses from pointe are “to stab with a blade” (1464, pointer un bœuf “to slaughter an ox”, Richelet 1680),^[3][6] to aim a gun, and, intransitively, to stick out or, of birds, to shoot up.^[3][8] Se pointer “to turn up” began in army slang in 1898 as “to take one's post”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1170 – Pointer “to stitch on cloth” in the Roman de Horn.^[3]
• c. 1360 – Pointer avant “to push forward” in Froissart.^[6]
• 1464 – “To stab with a blade”.^[3]
• 1499 – Marking names on a list.^[3]
• 1643 – Pointer la carte in navigation.^[3]
• 1691 – Note pointée in music.^[3]
• 1898 – Se pointer in army slang.^[8]
• 1935 – Clocking in at work, in Jules Romains.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tick off, to mark with a point for checking: pointer les élèves présents.^[8][3]
2. To check the arrival and departure of staff; intransitively, to clock in or out.^[8][1]
3. (nautical) To mark a ship's position on the chart.^[8][3]
4. To aim or point a weapon or instrument; to point at.^[1][6]
5. (archaic) To stab with the point of a blade.^[6][3]
6. (intransitive) To stick out, to rise to a point.^[3]
7. Se pointer (familiar): to turn up, to show up.^[8][1]

Word family

• pointage
• pointeur
• pointeuse

pointer² pointer (dog)

Pronunciation

• /pwɛ̃.tɛʁ/^[1]

Forms

pointer m (plural pointers)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the dog is borrowed from English pointer, first recorded in an English phrase in 1834.^[9][5][8] The English noun, used for the gun dog since 1717, is from the verb point (“to show”), from the English noun of the same form, borrowed from French point in the 13th century.^[9][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded in 1834 in spanish pointer, and on its own in Théophile Gautier in 1852.^[9][5]

Semantic evolution

The Académie in 1878 recorded the adjective in the frenchified form chien pointeur, and pointeur is a variant of the noun.^[9][8]

Timeline

• 1834 – Spanish pointer.^[9][8]
• 1852 – Pointer alone in Théophile Gautier.^[9][5]
• 1878 – The Académie records chien pointeur.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pointer, an English breed of gun dog.^[8][1]