ponto

Forms

ponto m (plural pontos)^[1] Houaiss records ponto and punto in the 14th century and põto in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin punctum (“a prick; a point”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ponto in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun is the neuter of the past participle of pungō (“to prick, pierce”).^[2][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician punto, Spanish punto, Catalan punt, French point and Italian punto.^[5][1] ponta “tip” is the feminine puncta (“a thrust”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][3] In the cantigas it is mostly “moment, hour”, in en bon ponto “in a good hour” and en mao ponto or en forte ponto “at an evil hour”, and once a musical note.^[6][7] The Crónica Troiana uses it for an instant: se lles algun ponto mays tardara “had they delayed a moment longer”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the Latin “prick” come the senses of sewing (the stitch, the thread between two holes), of spots and dots and of punctuation; from “a small part” come “moment”, “place”, “state” and “item of a discussion”.^[2][4] Houaiss dates “moment” to the 14th century.^[2] Barbosa (1611) already has estar em ponto de “to be on the point of”.^[8] Bluteau defines the geometric point at length.^[9]

Brazilian Portuguese gave the word the senses “bus stop, taxi rank”, “business premises” and “a regular selling place”.^[2][1] The register of attendance at work is also ponto.^[2][1] Wiktionary adds the prompter in a theatre.^[1] In Rio Grande do Sul ao ponto is said of meat cooked between rare and well done.^[10]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the sense “moment”; the spellings ponto and punto.^[2]
• c. 1430 – ponto in the Horto do Esposo.^[11]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary has estar em ponto de.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais defines the geometric point and the sense “subject, matter”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small mark or dot; a spot.^[2][13][1]
2. A punctuation mark, the full stop; also the dot over i and j.^[2][1]
3. (sewing) A stitch; the thread between two needle holes; a loop in knitting; a surgical stitch.^[2][14][1]
4. (geometry) A point, an element without dimensions.^[2][13][1]
5. A moment, an instant: Nesse ponto ele parou de falar.^[2][1]
6. A situation or state: Chegámos a um ponto difícil.^[2]
7. A particular place: um ponto da estrada.^[2][1]
8. (Brazil) A bus stop or taxi rank.^[2][1]
9. (Brazil) The premises of a business: comprou um ponto no centro.^[2]
10. The register of employees' attendance at work.^[2][1]
11. A unit of scoring in games and sports; a unit of change in stock market indices.^[2][1]
12. An item or topic of a discussion: o ponto principal.^[2][1]
13. (theatre) The prompter.^[1]

Word family

• pontinho
• ponto-cruz
• pesponto

Related words

• apontar
• ponta
• ponteira
• ponteiro
• pontuação
• pontuado
• pontual
• pontualidade
• pontuar
• Latin punctum
• Spanish punto

Usage notes

A separate noun ponto “the sea, the open sea”, from Greek through Latin pontus, is marked obsolete by Aurélio, Michaelis and the DLP.^[15][13][14] Set phrases include em ponto “sharp, on the dot”, dormir no ponto “to miss one's chance” and entregar os pontos “to give up”.^[10][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ponto
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ponta
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. punctum
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6847
6. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. ponto
7. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. ponto
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ponto
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ponto
10. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. ponto
11. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ponto
12. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 216
13. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. ponto
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. ponto
15. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ponto