punt

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See also: Punt and pùnt

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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[edit]

  • IPA(key): /pʌnt/
  • Audio (AU)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌnt

Noun[edit]

punt (plural punts)

  1. (nautical) A pontoon; a narrow shallow boat propelled by a pole.
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

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

  1. To dropkick; to kick something a considerable distance.
    • 1975, Barry Targan, Harry Belten and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, page 133:
      At the dump he emptied the station wagon quickly and only once punted a bag of refuse, exploding it like a pinata at a Mexican Christmas.
    • 2019, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, We Cast a Shadow (One World, →ISBN), page 100:
      He even hated pets—I once saw him punt a cat.
    1. (rugby, American football, Australian Rules football, Gaelic football, soccer, transitive, intransitive) 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.)
    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.
  2. (colloquial, intransitive) To equivocate and delay or put off (answering a question, addressing an issue, etc).
    • 2014, John Prados, The Family Jewels: The CIA, Secrecy, and Presidential Power, University of Texas Press (→ISBN), page 91:
      The briefer reported it had been terminated on orders from Secretary Schlesinger, but attributed this to a sense Shamrock produced little, not to the fact it had been discovered. The NSA briefer punted on whether Fort Meade had been reading Americans' private messages, ...
  3. To retreat from one's objective; to abandon an effort one still notionally supports.
    • 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
  4. (colloquial, intransitive) To make the best choice from a set of non-ideal alternatives.
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

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.
See also[edit]
Translations[edit]
Empty bottle showing the punt as the indentation in the base

Etymology 3[edit]

Borrowed from French pointe or Spanish punto (“point”). Doublet of point.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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. (Australia) Gambling, as a pastime, especially betting on horseraces or the dogs. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  5. A highly speculative investment or other commitment.
  6. A wild guess.
  7. An indentation in the base of a wine bottle.
  8. (glassblowing) A thin glass rod which is temporarily attached to a larger piece in order to better manipulate the larger piece.
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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

  1. To play at basset, baccara, faro, etc.
  2. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Britain) To stake against the bank, to back a horse, to gamble or take a chance more generally
    • 1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], OCLC 809623158:
      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, 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
  3. (figurative) To make a highly speculative investment or other commitment, or take a wild guess.
Translations[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

Borrowed from Irish punt, from Middle English pund.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

punt (plural punts)

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

Further reading[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin punctum.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

punt m (plural punts)

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

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Dutch Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia nl

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Latin punctum.

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From French point, from Latin punctus.

Noun[edit]

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.
  4. A pointy slice of a cake, pie or pizza.
    Synonym: taartpunt
Derived terms[edit]

Irish[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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”).

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

punt m (genitive singular puint, nominative plural puint or punta)

  1. pound (unit of weight, unit of currency)
Declension[edit]
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

Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From English pound.

Noun[edit]

punt m (genitive singular puint, nominative plural puint)

  1. (of enclosure) pound
Declension[edit]
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

Etymology 3[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

punt m (genitive singular puint, nominative plural puint)

  1. butt(-end)
  2. tip (of finger)
Declension[edit]
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

Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

Noun[edit]

punt

  1. Alternative form of puinn

Pronunciation[edit]

Mutation[edit]

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.

Further reading[edit]

Manx[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

punt m (genitive singular punt, plural puint)

  1. (numismatics, unit of measure) pound

Derived terms[edit]

Mutation[edit]

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[edit]

Old French[edit]

Noun[edit]

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

  1. Alternative form of pont

Romansch[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Noun[edit]

punt m (plural punts)

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

Slovene[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

pȕnt m inan

  1. revolt

Inflection[edit]

Masculine inan., hard o-stem
nom. sing. pùnt
gen. sing. púnta
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

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Old English pund.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

punt f (plural punnoedd or punnau)

  1. (numismatics) pound (sterling)
  2. pound (weight)
    Synonym: pwys

Mutation[edit]

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[edit]

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “punt”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
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