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punto

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Pronunciation

Forms

punto m (plural punti)[1] Old forms include Old Italian ponto, used by Iacopone.[2] A Latin record of 1290 has ⟨pontum⟩ for a point in a game.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin punctum (“small hole; dot; point; moment”), the neuter of the past participle of pungō (“to prick, sting”) used as a noun.[3][4][5][6] DELI calls it a learned word, while Nocentini and Meyer-Lübke count it among the inherited Romance words: French point, Occitan ponch, Spanish punto and Portuguese ponto.[3][4][7] A Late Latin masculine punctus existed beside it.[8]

De Vaan traces pungō to a nasal present of a root ⟨*pug-⟩ or ⟨*puk-⟩, and compares Ancient Greek πύξ (púx, “with the fist”); pugnus (“fist”) and pugna (“fight”) may belong to the same family.[9]

The negative adverb ⟨punto⟩ “not at all” grew out of the noun, “not even a point”, as point did in French.[4][7][6] Several uses are calques of French: the school mark follows French usage of 1690, and fare il punto, punto d'appoggio and punto d'onore follow faire le point, point d'appui and point d'honneur.[3] For punto di vista, Camilli pointed out that Vignola wrote “il punto della vista” in the literal sense of perspective before 1573, decades before the French theorists, so that France gave back only the figurative sense.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the noun to the 12th or 13th century.[4] DELI's first dated sense is “instant, moment” in Filippo da Messina, in the mid-13th century, and DEI records the word from the 13th century.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “precise place” is in Dante before 1321, and “passage of a text or speech” in the Commedia (1300–1313).[3] The point of geometry appears in Zanobi da Strata before 1364, and the stitch in sewing in Fazio degli Uberti before 1367.[3][10] The adverb punto “not at all” is in Boccaccio in 1353 (1325 in Nocentini and GRADIT); in Tuscan it is also an adjective, as in non ho punta voglia.[3][4][6]

Later senses multiplied: a ship's position at sea (1581), a dot or full stop (Lionardo Salviati, 1584), a unit of score in games (1566), a surgical stitch (Benvenuto Cellini, 1558–1571), a school mark (1871) and the printer's point (1908).[3] Puntata, an instalment of a serial, was a bookbinders' word, recorded in 1812.[3] The proverb per un punto Martin perse la cappa (15th century) has a French counterpart.[2] English took punto from Italian or Spanish in 1584 for a fine point of behaviour, and later in glassmaking and lacework.[10]

Timeline

  • Mid-13th century – Filippo da Messina uses punto “instant”.[3]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for a passage of a text.[3]
  • 1353 – Boccaccio uses the adverb “not at all”.[3]
  • Before 1364 – Zanobi da Strata uses the geometrical point.[3][10]
  • Before 1367 – Fazio degli Uberti uses it for a stitch.[3]
  • 1566 – Lionardo Salviati uses it for a point scored in a game.[3]
  • 1584 – English punto is first recorded.[10]
  • 1871 – Tommaseo–Bellini records it for a school mark.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (geometry) A point, the basic element without dimensions: il punto d'incontro di due rette.[5][6][8]
  2. A small round mark, a dot; the full stop at the end of a sentence: Dopo il punto si scrive la maiuscola.[5][11][8]
  3. A tiny speck seen from far away: La barca era ormai un punto all'orizzonte.[5]
  4. A place, a particular spot: Ci vediamo nel solito punto.[5][11]
  5. A passage of a text; a question or topic under discussion: venire al punto, to come to the point.[5][11]
  6. A moment, a particular stage: A quel punto ho deciso di andarmene.[5][11]
  7. A degree or level: a che punto siamo con i lavori? asks how far the work has got.[5]
  8. A stitch in sewing, embroidery or knitting; a surgical stitch.[5][11][1]
  9. A unit of score in a game or a ranking; a mark: La squadra ha perso due punti in classifica.[5][1]
  10. A percentage point; a staple; the position of a ship at sea.[5][1]

Adverb

  1. (Tuscan, with a negative) Not at all: Quel film non mi è piaciuto punto.[6][4][1]

Word family

  • puntino
  • punteggiare
  • punteggiatura
  • punteggio
  • puntata
  • appunto
  • puntiforme
  • puntinismo
  • impuntire

Usage notes

Punto is also the past participle of pungere “to prick, sting”, recorded as an adjective in Luigi Alamanni in 1548.[3][5] Common phrases include di punto in bianco “all of a sudden”, punto e virgola “semicolon”, due punti “colon”, mettere a punto “to fine-tune” and in punto “sharp” (alle sei in punto).[5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3151
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  11. ^ 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