punt

punt
\ \ English has three separate words punt. The oldest is punt ‘flat-bottomed boat’ [15], which comes via Middle Low German punte or punto from Latin pontō, a term for a sort of Gaulish boat which also produced English pontoon. Punt ‘bet’ [18] (better known in the form of the agent noun punter ‘better’, hence ‘customer’) comes from French ponter, a derivative of ponte ‘bet against the banker in certain card games’. This was adapted from Spanish punto ‘point’, a descendant of Latin punctum (source of English point). Punt ‘kick’ [19] may be a variant of bunt ‘push’ [19] (now used as a baseball term, meaning ‘hit the ball softly’); this could in turn be an alteration of butt, but it might also come from a Celtic source, related to Breton bounta ‘butt’.
\ \ Cf.⇒ PONTOON; POINT, PUNCTUATION

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • punt — ● punt nom masculin (anglais punt) Petite embarcation plate pour chasser les canards en mer et dans les estuaires. 1. punt [pœnt] n. m. ÉTYM. 1895, in D. D. L.; mot angl., d après le lat. ponto « bateau de transport gaulois ». ❖ ♦ Rare. Emb …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • punt — punt1 [punt] n. [< slang of Rugby School, England: ? form of dial. bunt, to strike, kick: see BUNT1] Football a kick in which the ball is dropped and kicked before it hits the ground vt., vi. to kick (a football) in this way punt2 [punt] n.… …   English World dictionary

  • punt — Ⅰ. punt [1] ► NOUN ▪ a long, narrow, flat bottomed boat, square at both ends and propelled with a long pole. ► VERB ▪ travel or convey in a punt. ORIGIN Latin ponto, denoting a flat bottomed ferry boat. Ⅱ. punt [2] …   English terms dictionary

  • punt — punt; punt·latsh; punt·man; rhu·punt; punt·er; …   English syllables

  • Punt — Punt, v. i. 1. To boat or hunt in a punt. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] 2. To punt a football. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Punt — Punt, n. [AS., fr. L. ponto punt, pontoon. See {Pontoon}.] (Naut.) A flat bottomed boat with square ends. It is adapted for use in shallow waters. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Punt — bezeichnet: ein in ägyptischen Quellen beschriebenes Land, siehe Punt (Goldland) ein Spielzug beim American Football, siehe Punt (American Football) ein selbsterklärtes autonomes Gebiet in Somalia, siehe Puntland in der gälischen Sprache das… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • punt — UK US /pʌnt/ noun [C] FINANCE ● take a punt on sth Cf. take a punt on sth …   Financial and business terms

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