punct

Forms

punct n (plural puncte)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pūnctum (“puncture; point”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Ciorănescu and Wiktionary date the loan to the 18th century, and Tiktin says it came in partly by way of other languages.^[2][1][6] For some of its senses DLR compares Hungarian pont, French point and Italian punto.^[7] The Latin noun is the neuter of pūnctus, the past participle of pungō (“to prick, puncture”).^[1][8]

It is a doublet of pont, which came from the same Latin word by way of the Hungarian word.^[9][1] Graur groups both with the inherited împunge and the French loan poantă.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1675, in Miron Costin's chronicle, and MDA2 and DLR start from the same author.^[6][3][7] The early form is pont, and the sense was an article of a treaty: „Despre partea hanului era aceste ponturi” “on the khan's side these were the articles”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The old senses were legal: an article or clause of a law or treaty, then the whole agreement, and the duties of a peasant bound to labour service.^[3][7] Tiktin quotes ponturile păcii “the articles of peace” and notes that pont kept the sense of an official order.^[6] The plural was once punturi or ponturi; the Lexicon of Buda (1825) gives punctu or puntu.^[5][11][3]

The modern senses grew with the learned form: the dot and full stop of writing, the point of geometry, a place, a moment, an item of discussion and the unit of a score.^[2][4] Phrases such as punct de vedere “point of view” and la 9 punct “at nine sharp” match German and French usage, and Tiktin takes a veni la pont “to come at the right moment” from French à point.^[6]

Timeline

• 1675 – ponturi “articles (of a treaty)” in Miron Costin's chronicle; the first record.^[6][7]
• 18th century – the learned form punct, from Latin.^[2][1]
• 1825 – punctu or puntu in the Lexicon of Buda.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dot; the full stop that ends a sentence or marks an abbreviation, also the dot over i and j: două puncte “colon”, punct și virgulă “semicolon”, puncte de suspensie “ellipsis”.^[4][1]
2. (as an interjection) That's it! Enough!^[4]
3. A conventional dot: a place on a map, a pip on a die or domino, or the dot after a musical note.^[4]
4. A kind of stitch in sewing or embroidery.^[4]
5. punct tipografic: the typographic point, a unit of length.^[4]
6. Something that looks very small in the distance; a small spot on a background of another colour.^[4][5]
7. (geometry) A figure without dimensions, the meeting of two lines; a fixed place on a line, a surface or in space: punct medical “first-aid post”.^[4][12]
8. The value of a quantity, especially a temperature: punct de topire “melting point”.^[4]
9. A part of an action, a discussion or a problem; an item: punct de vedere “point of view”, a fi pe punctul de a “to be about to”.^[4][1]
10. A unit in scoring.^[2]
11. (dated) An article or clause of a law, a treaty or a statute.^[3][7]

Related words

• puncta
• punctaj
• punctual
• pont
• punctuație
• împunge
• Latin pūnctum

Usage notes

A pune punctul pe i means “to say what matters most”, a pune la punct “to adjust (a device); to set right”, and a pune pe cineva la punct “to put someone in their place”.^[4][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. punct
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 596
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 897
5. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1075
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. punct
7. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. punct
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. punctum
9. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. pont
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 79
11. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 559
12. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual