punt

See also: pùnt

English

Etymology 1

From Old English [Term?], from Latin pontō (“Gaulish flat-bottomed boat, pontoon”), from pons (“bridge”); readopted from Middle Low German punte (“ferry boat”) or Middle Dutch ponte (“ferry boat”) of the same origin.

A traditional upper-Thames punt in use for placing eel-traps called grig-weels in the 19th century

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʌnt/
• Rhymes: -ʌnt

Noun

punt (plural punts)

1. (nautical) A pontoon; a narrow shallow boat propelled by a pole.

Translations

narrow shallow boat propelled by a pole

• Czech: prám m
• Dutch: vlet c
• Finnish: jokivene (fi), ruuhi (fi)
• German: Stocherkahn (de) m
• Hungarian: ladik (hu)
• Irish: punta m, puint f, leastar m

• Italian: barchino m
• Latin: scapha f
• Maori: waka kōporo
• Russian: плоскодонка (ru) f (ploskodonka)
• Spanish: batea (es)

Verb

punt (third-person singular simple present punts, present participle punting, simple past and past participle punted)

1. (nautical) To propel a punt or similar craft by means of a pole.

Translations

propel a punt with a pole

• Dutch: vletten
• Finnish: sauvoa (fi)

• German: stochern (de)
• Maori: toko

Etymology 2

Possibly a dialectal variant of bunt; Rugby is the origin of the sports usage of the term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʌnt/
• Rhymes: -ʌnt

Verb

punt (third-person singular simple present punts, present participle punting, simple past and past participle punted)

1. (rugby, American football, Australian Rules football, Gaelic football, soccer) to kick a ball dropped from the hands before it hits the ground. This puts the ball farther from the goal across which the opposing team is attempting to score, so improves the chances of the team punting.
   • As a colloquialism, 'So I punted' means the speaker chose the best alternative among a menu of non-ideal choices.
2. (soccer) To kick a bouncing ball far and high.
   • 2011 September 2, “Wales 2-1 Montenegro”, in BBC^[1]:

     With five minutes remaining Hennessey was down well to block another Vukcevic shot, while Gunter was smartly in to punt away the dangerous loose ball.

3. To retreat from one's objective.
   • ca. 2002, Ben Collins-Sussman, Brian W. Fitzpatrick and C. Michael Pilato, “Basic Work Cycle”, in Version Control with Subversion^[2]:

     Punting: Using svn revert¶ If you decide that you want to throw out your changes and start your edits again (whether this occurs after a conflict or anytime), just revert your changes

Derived terms

Derived terms

• drop punt
• punter

• punt returner
• torpedo punt

Translations

American football: drop-kick

• Finnish: lentopotku

retreat from one's objective

• Dutch: zich (nl) terugtrekken (nl)

Noun

punt (plural punts)

1. (rugby, American football, soccer) A kick made by a player who drops the ball and kicks it before it hits the ground. Contrast drop kick.

Translations

American football: drop-kick

• Catalan: xut al vol (ca) m
• Czech: (rugby) kop z ruky m

• Finnish: lentopotku
• Irish: (Gaelic football) lasc (ga) f, (rugby) cic m

Empty bottle showing the punt as the indentation in the base

Etymology 3

Borrowing from French pointe or Spanish punto (“point”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʌnt/
• Rhymes: -ʌnt

Noun

punt (plural punts)

1. A point in the game of faro.
2. The act of playing at basset, baccara, faro, etc.
3. A bet or wager.
4. An indentation in the base of a wine bottle.
5. (glassblowing) A thin glass rod which is temporarily attached to a larger piece in order to better manipulate the larger piece.

Translations

point in the game of faro

• Dutch: punt (nl) n

• Italian: puntata (it) f

bet or wager

• Dutch: gok (nl) m, weddenschap (nl) f
• Finnish: veto (fi)

• Italian: puntata (it) f, scommessa (it) f
• Swedish: vad (sv) n

indentation in the base of a wine bottle

• Dutch: ziel (nl) f
• Irish: log m

• Italian: indentazione f

Verb

punt (third-person singular simple present punts, present participle punting, simple past and past participle punted)

1. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Britain) To stake against the bank, to back a horse, to gamble or take a chance more generally
   • Thackeray

     She heard […] of his punting at gaming tables.

   • 2004, John Buglear, “Is it worth the risk? – introducing probability”, in Quantitative methods for business: the A-Z of QM^[3], ISBN 9780750658980, page 339:

     Whether you want to gamble on a horse race, bet on which player will score first in a game of football, have a punt on a particular tennis player winning a grand slam event, you are buying a chance, a chance which is measured in terms of probability, ‘the odds’.

   • 2006 June 23, Dan Roebuck, “Eriksson's men still worth a punt”, in The Guardian^[4]:

     Eriksson's men still worth a punt

   • 2009 November 3, Sarah Collerton, “Cup punt not child's play”, in ABC News^[5]:

     Australians have a reputation for being keen to bet on two flies climbing up a wall and today young ones often take a casual classroom punt

2. (figuratively) To make a highly speculative investment or other commitment, or take a wild guess.

Translations

to gamble

• Italian: puntare (it), scommettere (it)

make a highly speculative investment or other commitment

• Dutch: wedden (nl), gokken (nl)

• Spanish: especular (es) (pejorative)

Related terms

• punter

Etymology 4

Borrowing from Irish punt, from Middle English pund.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʊnt/
• Rhymes: -ʊnt

Noun

punt (plural punts)

1. The Irish pound, used as the unit of currency of Ireland until it was replaced by the euro in 2002.

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin punctum.

Noun

punt m (plural punts)

1. point (specific location)
2. dot ((grammar) A punctuation mark)
3. dot ((mathematics) Used for separating the fractional part from the whole part)
4. dot (Used in Morse code)

Derived terms

Derived terms

• dos punts
• punt de vista
• punt i coma

• punts suspensius
• punt volat
• tan bon punt

Related terms

• puntuar
• punyir
• punxar

Further reading

• “punt” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʏnt/

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowing from Latin punctum.

Noun

punt n (plural punten, diminutive puntje n)

1. point
   1. A position, place, or spot
   2. A moment in time
   3. A central idea, argument, or opinion of a discussion or presentation
   4. A tally of worth or score (such as in a game)
   5. A mark, note, or grade (as in for a class)
   6. (geometry) geometric point

      Door twee punten gaat precies één rechte. ― Through two points one can draw exactly one straight line.

Derived terms

Terms derived from punt

• beginpunt
• brandpunt
• buigpunt
• de puntjes op de i zetten
• dieptepunt
• doelpunt

• grenspunt
• hoekpunt
• hoogtepunt
• lichtpunt
• procentpunt
• punteren

• raakpunt
• snijpunt
• spaarpunt
• startpunt
• strafpunt
• zwaartepunt

Etymology 2

From French point, from Latin punctus.

Noun

punt m (plural punten, diminutive puntje n)

1. The terminal point of something

   de punt van een naald of mes ― the point of a needle or knife

   de zuidpunt van het eiland ― the southern point of the island

2. dot

   Een ypsilon, zonder puntjes. ― A wye, without dots on it.

3. full stop, period

   Aan het einde van een zin hoort een punt of een ander leesteken. ― At the end of a sentence there belongs a full stop or another punctuation sign.

   Punt, gedaan. ― Full stop, finished. / That’s it, period.

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Irish

Alternative forms

• punnt (obsolete)
• púnt (Munster)

Etymology

From Middle Irish punt, from Middle English pund (“pound”), from Old English pund (“a pound, weight”), from Proto-Germanic *pundą (“pound, weight”), from pondus (“weight”), from Proto-Indo-European *pend-, *spend- (“to pull, stretch”).

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /pˠuːn̪ˠt̪ˠ/ (also spelled púnt)
• (Connacht, Ulster) IPA^(key): /pˠʊn̪ˠt̪ˠ/

Noun

punt m (genitive singular puint, nominative plural puint)

1. pound (unit of weight, unit of currency)

Declension

Declension of punt

First declension

Bare forms: Case Singular Plural Nominative punt puint Vocative a phuint a phunta Genitive puint punt Dative punt puint

Forms with the definite article: Case Singular Plural Nominative an punt na puint Genitive an phuint na bpunt Dative leis an bpunt don phunt leis na puint

• Alternative plural: punta (Cois Fharraige)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
punt	phunt	bpunt
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

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Manx

Etymology

From Middle Irish punt, from Middle English pund (“pound”).

Noun

punt m (genitive singular punt, plural puint)

1. (numismatics, unit of measure) pound

Derived terms

Terms derived from punt

• puntaght
• punt airhey

• punt ommidjagh

• punt Sostynagh

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
punt	phunt	bunt
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• “punt” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

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Old French

Noun

punt m (oblique plural punz or puntz, nominative singular punz or puntz, nominative plural punt)

1. Alternative form of pont

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Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Sutsilvan) pùnt

Etymology

From Latin pōns, pōntem (compare Catalan pont, French pont, Italian ponte, Occitan pònt, Portuguese ponte, Spanish puente), from Proto-Indo-European *pont- (“path, road”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [punt]

Noun

punt m (plural punts)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Surmiran, Puter, Vallader) bridge

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Slovene

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpúnt/
• Tonal orthography: pȕnt

Noun

pùnt m inan (genitive púnta, nominative plural púnti)

1. revolt

Declension

Declension of pùnt (masculine inan., hard o-stem)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	pùnt	púnta	púnti
accusative	pùnt	púnta	púnte
genitive	púnta	púntov	púntov
dative	púntu	púntoma	púntom
locative	púntu	púntih	púntih
instrumental	púntom	púntoma	púnti

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Welsh

Etymology

Borrowing from Old English pund.

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /pɨ̞nt/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /pɪnt/

Noun

punt f (plural punnoedd or punnau)

1. (numismatics) pound (sterling)
2. pound (weight)

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
punt	bunt	mhunt	phunt
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• “punt”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies, 2014