pontone

Forms

pontone m (plural pontoni)^[1] The old form is puntone.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin ponto (“flat-bottomed boat, ferry”), first recorded before 1527 in the form puntone.^[5][3][2][6] Treccani thinks it probably came through French ponton, which is recorded from the 14th century.^[7][2][8] Medieval Latin pontonus is recorded at Verona in 1319.^[9]

The Latin noun is derived from pōns (“bridge”), since such boats were used to make bridges.^[1][3][10] The OLD instead considers it probably Gaulish.^[11] Latin pōns goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pónth₁s (“road”): the sense moved from “road” to “bridge”.^[12]

Meyer-Lübke traces *ponto in Romansh pantun “board floor in a cowshed”, French ponton “ferry, flying bridge”, Catalan pontó and Spanish pontón “small bridge”.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian records are from the early 16th century, in Machiavelli, Agostino Giustiniani and Guicciardini: a large boat or float, pushed against a fortification and carrying artillery.^[3] In Latin, Caesar used ponto for a flat-bottomed boat, and Gellius for a bridge of boats.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word took the military sense of a flat-bottomed boat from which floating bridges are thrown across a river: Davila uses it in 1630, and in 1745 a dictionary defines it as a bridge of two large boats covered with planks.^[9][8] In 1824 a military writer noted that the French had been the first to use such boats.^[9] Tommaseo also records the ancient pontone, a towed ship that carried soldiers.^[14]

Today the word means a large flat-bottomed float, usually decked and without its own engine, used to carry heavy loads in harbours and inland waters.^[2][7] The pontone a biga carries a crane for lifting heavy weights, and the pontone armato was an armed float used in the First World War on the lower Isonzo and Piave.^[7]

German borrowed the Italian word as Ponton in 1579, later replaced by the same word taken from French.^[15] French ponton passed into English as ponton (1676) and pontoon (1690).^[8]

Timeline

• 1319 – Medieval Latin pontonus is recorded at Verona.^[9][8]
• Before 1527 – Machiavelli uses puntoni.^[2][3]
• 1579 – German Ponton is recorded, from Italian.^[15]
• 1630 – Davila uses the word for the boats of a floating bridge.^[9][8]
• 1745 – A dictionary of new words defines it as a bridge of two large boats.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) pontoon: a large flat-bottomed float, usually decked and without its own propulsion, used to carry heavy goods and supplies, mainly in harbours and inland waters: pontone a biga (crane pontoon), pontone armato (armed pontoon).^{[2][10][7][1]}
2. (rare) A flat-bottomed boat used to support a temporary bridge.^[5][16][7]

Word family

• pontoniere

Related words

• ponte
• Latin pons
• French ponton

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 864
4. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 795
5. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3016
9. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli