pungente

Forms

pungente m or f (plural pungentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pungēns (“pricking, stinging”), the present participle of pungō (“to prick, pierce; to torment”), written Old Galician-Portuguese pungente in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it a learned word;^[3][1] Wiktionary treats it as inherited through the old language.^[3][1] Houaiss records a 15th-century form Old Galician-Portuguese pungintes.^[2] The verb pungir comes from the same Latin verb.^[4]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *pungō, from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to prick, punch”), and is related to pugnus (“fist”) and to Ancient Greek πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist”).^[1][5] De Vaan sees in it a nasal present of a root ending in a velar stop, and thinks that the root of the words for “fist” was a separate one, given the difference in meaning.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it of a young man's first beard: mancebo barva pungente “a youth with a pricking beard” (cantiga 355), and barvas pungentes again in cantiga 392.^[6][2] A cantiga d'escarnho, perhaps by Fernan Soarez de Quinhones, already has the figurative sense “painful”: Que amor tan astros' e tan pungente “what an ill-starred and painful love”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) glosses it as picante “stinging, sharp”, with a line by Gabriel Pereira on a collar que com pungentes / Pontas afronta as feras “which with its piercing points defies the wild beasts”.^[8] Morais (1789) adds dor aguda e pungente “sharp and piercing pain”, and the original Caldas Aulete has the figurative sense of what wounds morally, as well as “offensive”.^[9][10] Today the main sense is the figurative one, deeply moving or painful, beside the physical senses of sharp pain, a sharp smell or sound, and a strong taste.^[2][11][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – barva pungente in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[6][2]
• 15th century – the form pungintes.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau glosses it as picante.^[8]
• 1734 – Feijó distinguishes pungente from pingente.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records dor aguda e pungente.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a stiff, sharp point that can pierce; pointed (pontiagudo), piercing.^[2][10]
2. Causing sharp, piercing pain; lancinating (lancinante): uma dor pungente no peito.^[2][10]
3. (figurative) Deeply moving or distressing; poignant, painful: uma despedida pungente.^{[2][11][14][1]}
4. (figurative) Causing a sharp physical sensation, of a smell or sound; pungent.^[2][1]
5. (figurative) Strong, sharp, sour or bitter to the taste; picante.^[2][15][1]

Related words

• pungir
• Latin pungō

Usage notes

Feijó (1734) warned against confusing pungente, something that pricks, with pingente, a small stone hanging from an earring, mostly used in the plural.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pungente
3. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pungente
4. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pungir
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c 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. pungente
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. pungente
8. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pungente
9. ^ a b 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, 264
10. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. pungente
11. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pungente
12. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pungente
13. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pungente
14. ^ 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. pungente
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7602