pungere

Forms

pungere (first-person singular present pùngo, first-person singular past historic pùnsi, past participle pùnto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The old and poetic form is Old Italian pugnere.^[2][3][4] Other old forms include Old Italian pognere and Old Italian pongere.^[5] Old and rural Tuscan also had Old Italian pignere.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pungō (“to prick, sting; to torment”).^[7][8][9][1] The same verb survives in Old French poindre “to sting”, now meaning “to dawn, sprout” in poindre, in Occitan ponher, Catalan punyir and Romanian împunge; Spanish pungir and Portuguese pungir are learned.^[8][10][1]

The Latin verb is a present with a nasal infix, from Proto-Italic *pungō.^[11][1][12] Its root is Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to prick, strike”), which De Vaan also allows as a root ending in -k, the g then coming from the voicing of the stop after the nasal.^[11][1] Latin pugnus (“fist”) belongs to the same root, with pugna (“fight”) and pugil (“boxer”), and so do Ancient Greek πύξ (púx, “with the fist”) and πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist; boxing”).^[11][8][13] From the Latin verb Italian also has compungere, espungere, punta and punto.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini and GRADIT date the first record before 1249.^[8][9] DELI's earliest sense, from the first half of the 13th century in Giacomino Pugliese, is figurative: “to offend, wound with words”.^[7] A Sicilian sonnet, which the GDLI gives to Pier della Vigna, Mostacci or Giacomo da Lentini, says that love has stolen the poet's heart so that eo non son meo quanto un ago pungesse, “I am not my own as much as a needle might prick”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to spur, stimulate” is in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century, “to give a stinging or prickling sensation” in Mastro Aldobrandino in the 14th, and the plain physical sense, “to wound lightly with a point”, in Boccaccio in 1353.^[7] The present participle pungente is recorded at the start of the 13th century, in Uguccione da Lodi, and soon after for biting words.^[7]

Its derivatives name pointed things: pungiglione, an insect's sting, before 1292, and pungolo, the goad for oxen, before 1406, which is formed from pungere as cingolo from cingere.^[7] Pungitopo, butcher's broom, is recorded in 1499;^[7] Mattioli explained in 1544 that it was hung over salted meat acciocché i topi, pungendosi nelle sue acutissime frondi, non vi possino scendere, “so that the mice, pricking themselves on its very sharp leaves, cannot get down to it”.^[7]

A Tuscan proverb warns against meddling in the quarrels of relatives: tra carne e ugna nessun vi pugna.^[4]

Timeline

• Before 1249 – First record.^[8][9]
• First half of the 13th century – Giacomino Pugliese uses it for wounding with words.^[7]
• Early 13th century – Pungente is recorded in Uguccione da Lodi.^[7]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for “to spur on”.^[7]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for pricking with a point.^[7]
• 1499 – Pugnitopi (butcher's broom) appears in the Ricettario fiorentino.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prick: to pierce the skin or a surface lightly with something sharp: Il cactus sul davanzale punge chi lo tocca.^[9][2][3]
2. Of insects and other animals, to sting: Una vespa l'ha punto sulla caviglia.^[9][2][15]
3. To prickle or irritate the skin, like rough wool, a beard or nettles.^[9][2][15]
4. Of smells, tastes or cold, to be sharp and penetrating, to bite.^[9][15][16]
5. (figurative) To hurt with words, to needle;^[9][3][15] pungere sul vivo, to touch someone on a sore point.^[9][3][15]
6. (figurative) To trouble or grieve deeply, as remorse does.^[9][15]
7. (literary) To goad an animal;^[9][3][16] (figurative) to spur, stimulate;^[9][3][16] mi punge vaghezza, jokingly, “I have a fancy to”.^[9][3][16]
8. (reflexive, pungersi) To prick oneself: Si è punto il pollice cucendo un bottone.^[3][15]

Word family

• pungente
• pungolo
• pungiglione
• pungitopo
• pungolare
• puntura
• compungere
• punzecchiare
• ripungere
• trapungere
• pungitore
• pugnereccio
• pugnerone

Related words

• espungere
• punzone
• pugno
• punta
• Latin pungō

Usage notes

The verb is irregular: present pungo, past historic punsi, past participle punto.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 811
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3148
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 14, 944
15. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli