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puntare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word puntare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin pungō

Pronunciation

  • /punˈta.re/[1]

Forms

puntare (first-person singular present pùnto, first-person singular past historic puntài, past participle puntàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian punta + -are, a verb from the noun “point”;[2][3][4][5] GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti also allow punto as the base.[2][3][4][5] The noun continues Late Latin puncta (“a stab; a point”), the noun use of the feminine of punctus, the past participle of pungō (“to prick”).[2][3][1] Comparable verbs are Old Occitan ponchar (“to prick”) and French pointer (12th century).[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli date the verb to the 13th century.[3][4][8] DEI gives Boccaccio for “to push, to bear down on”, while DELI's first record of “to press something pointed against a surface” is in the Pataffio (perhaps 15th century).[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Hunting gave the sense of a dog stopping to point at game (1622), and gunnery the sense “to aim” (1641, Il bombardiero veneto).[6][2] The sense “to bet” is recorded in 1784, and “to stare at someone” in Tommaseo–Bellini (1871).[2]

The intransitive “to advance resolutely towards” is a military term first recorded in the Zingarelli of 1922, probably spread by the First World War.[2] The figurative “to count on something to reach a goal” is recorded in 1965.[2]

Timeline

  • 13th century – Puntare is first recorded.[3][4]
  • 1622 – Olina uses it of a pointing dog.[6]
  • 1641 – The sense “to aim” is recorded.[2]
  • 1784 – The sense “to bet” is recorded.[2]
  • 1814 – Puntamento is recorded.[3]
  • 1871 – The sense “to stare at” is recorded.[2]
  • 1922 – The intransitive military sense “to advance on” is recorded.[2]
  • 1965 – The sense “to count on” is recorded.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To press or plant something by its point or end: Puntò il bastone nella sabbia.[4][8][5]
  2. To aim, point something at: puntare la torcia verso il soffitto.[4][8][5]
  3. Of a gun dog: to point at game.[4][5][9]
  4. To stare at someone insistently, especially with interest: Quel tipo ti sta puntando.[4][5]
  5. To bet, stake: puntare dieci euro sul nero.[4][8][10]
  6. (intransitive, figurative) To count on: puntare sull'esperienza.[4][10]
  7. (colloquial) To pin: puntare una spilla sul bavero.[4][5]
  8. (intransitive) To head for, advance on: La colonna puntò verso il porto.[4][10]
  9. (intransitive, figurative) To aim at, strive for: puntare al titolo.[4][10]

Word family

  • puntata
  • puntatore
  • puntamento
  • punteria
  • puntaspilli
  • impuntare
  • ripuntare
  • punta
  • punto
  • appuntare
  • pungere
  • French pointer

Usage notes

Puntare i piedi means to dig one's heels in, and puntare il dito contro to accuse.[4][10] A rare puntare “to note down; to mark with a dot”, from appuntare influenced by punto, is numbered separately in GRADIT, Nocentini and the GDLI;[4][3][11][2] DELI records it from 1922.[4][3][11][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3149
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 14, 968
Cite this entry

“Puntare.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/puntare. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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