poniard

English

Alternative forms

• poignard
• poynard
• punierd

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

Borrowed from French poignard, from poing (“fist”), from Old French, from Latin pūgnus (“fist”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peuk-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɒnjəd/, /ˈpɒnjɑːd/

Noun

poniard (plural poniards)

1. (now chiefly historical) A dagger typically having a slender square or triangular blade.
   • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, V.1:

     The sir King ha's wag'd with him six Barbary horses, / against the which he impon'd as I take it, sixe French / Rapiers and Poniards, with their assignes, as Girdle, / Hangers or so […].

   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:

     On this occasion I said nothing, but concealing his poniard in my clothes, I hasted up the mountain, determined to execute my purpose […].

Translations

dagger

• Dutch: knijf n, ponjaard (nl) m
• Galician: puñal m
• Ido: poniardo (io)
• Italian: pugnale (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: dolk(er) m
• Persian: شوشکه (fa) (šuške)
• Portuguese: punhal (pt)
• Spanish: puñal (es)

Verb

poniard (third-person singular simple present poniards, present participle poniarding, simple past and past participle poniarded)

1. To stab with a poniard.
   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, I:

     Manfred […] would have poignarded the peasant in their arms.

Related terms

• impugn
• pugilism
• pugnacious
• repugn (repugnant)

References

• “poniard”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “poniard”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "poniard" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

Anagrams

• padroni, pandori, paridon