punch dialogue

English

WOTD – 27 October 2023

Etymology

From punch +‎ dialogue, with dialogue used loosely to mean a spoken line. The term possibly compares the force of the line to a punch (similar to punch line), or because many of these lines are delivered immediately preceding a fight scene (compare fighting words).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpʌn(t)ʃ ˈdaɪəlɒɡ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpʌn(t)ʃ ˈdaɪəˌlɔɡ/
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˌpʌn(t)ʃ ˈdaɪəˌlɑɡ/
• Hyphenation: punch di‧a‧logue

Noun

punch dialogue (plural punch dialogues)

Examples
Punch dialogues delivered by the Tamil actor Rajinikanth (born 1950): From Arunachalam (1997): “Andavan solran, Arunachalam mudikaran” (“God proposes, Arunachalam executes”). From Baba (2002): “Naan lata vandalum latesta varuven” (“I might be late, but I will always be the latest”).

1. (South India) Chiefly in a film: a retort or a witty line, commonly written to be spoken by the protagonist to excite fans of the actor delivering them.
   • 2011 October 18, “Malayalam punch dialogues now on t-shirts”, in The New Indian Express‎^[2], Chennai, Tamil Nadu: Express Publications, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-25:

     ‘Meen aviyal enthayo entho’ – the comic number by Sreenivasan in the movie, ‘Akkare Akkare Akkare’, ‘Thomas Kutty Vittoda’ by Mukesh in ‘Harihar Nagar’ series, ‘Gafoor Ka Dosth’ are other punch dialogues that are printed on the T-shirts, […]

   • 2016 March 2, Suhas Yellapantula, “Punch patakas for men only”, in The New Indian Express‎^[3], Chennai, Tamil Nadu: Express Publications, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-09-16:

     Apart from intense fight sequences and glamourous^[sic] songs, one of the most important ingredients of a masala enetertainer^[sic] in Tollywood – is its punch dialogues. For instance, a Nandamuri Balakrishna film is incomplete without punch dialogues – those with attitude, catchy slogans, rhymes and alliterations.

   • 2016 July 17, Nandhu Sundaram, “Where there is Rajinikanth, there is Punch Dialogue”, in Scroll.in‎^[4], archived from the original on 2023-02-14:

     Rajinikanth didn't invent the punch dialogue, but it is safe to say that nobody has popularised the delivery of sharply written lines aimed for maximum effect better than the Tamil screen icon.

   • 2020 August 1, Manjula, “Puneeth Rajkumar’s punch dialogue in Yuvarathnaa motion poster”, in The Hans India‎^[5], Hyderabad, Telegana: Hyderabad Media House, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-02:

     The poster is coupled with a punch dialogue which has given a fillip to his [Puneeth Rajkumar's] appearance in the movie and given fans a high.

Translations

retort or a witty line

• Finnish: sutkaus, letkaus
• Macedonian: духо́витост f (duhóvitost)