# punctus
## English
### Etymology

From Medieval Latin punctus (“punctuation mark”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈpʌŋktəs/

### Noun

punctus
* (palaeography) The basic dot (‧) used to end a sentence in medieval punctuation (ancestral to the full stop/period).
** 1993, Malcolm Beckwith Parkes, Pause and Effect‎, Plates and Commentaries, page 197:In the sacerdotal prayers in col. a the punctuation is by punctus flexus, punctus elevatus and punctus.
** 2011 July 22, Tadao Kudouchi, edited by Akio Oizumi and Jacek Fisiak, English Historical Linguistics and Philology in Japan‎, De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 172:The most common item of punctuation was the punctus or point.
** 2015 August 31, “Medieval Manuscripts”, in Albrecht Classen, editor, Handbook of Medieval Culture‎, volume 2, De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 1015:Curiously, the punctus versus was largely replaced with a punctus by ca.1100.

### See also

* punctus circumflexus
* punctus elevatus
* punctus flexus
* punctus interrogativus
* punctus percontativus
* punctus versus

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈpuːnk.tus/, [ˈpuːŋkt̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈpunk.tus/, [ˈpuŋkt̪us]

### Etymology 1

Perfect passive participle of pungō (“I prick, puncture, punch”).

#### Participle

pūnctus (feminine pūncta, neuter pūnctum, adverb pūnctim); first/second-declension participle
* pricked, punctured, pierced, having been pricked.
* marked with points; stippled.
* stung, bitten, pinched, having been affected sensibly.
* vexed, annoyed, grieved, troubled, disturbed, having been vexed or annoyed.

##### Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

##### Derived terms

* interpūnctus
* pūnctillum
* pūnctiō
* pūnctulum
* pūnctum

##### Descendants

* Italo-Dalmatian:
** Italian: punto, punta
** Sicilian: puntu
** Venetan: ponto
* Rhaeto-Romance:
** Friulian: pont, ponte
* Gallo-Romance:
** Catalan: punt, punta
** Old French: point
*** Middle French: poinct
**** French: point, pointe
*** → Middle English: poynt
**** English: point
** Occitan: ponch, poncha
* Ibero-Romance:
** Asturian: puntu
** Galician: punto, punta
** Portuguese: ponto, ponta
** Spanish: punto, punta
* Borrowings:
** → Dutch: punt, bont
** → German: Punkt, bunt (possibly)
*** → Hungarian: pont
**** → Romanian: pont
** → Romanian: punct

#### Noun

pūnctus m (genitive pūnctī); second declension
* (Late Latin, New Latin; also mathematics) point
    Alternative form: pūnctum n

##### Declension

Second-declension noun.

### Etymology 2

From pungō +‎ -tus.

#### Noun

pūnctus m (genitive pūnctūs); fourth declension
* a pricking, stinging, puncture
* (dubious) a point
** Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 2.68, Jean Hardouin, editor, Caii Plinii Secundi historiae naturalis libri XXXVII […], volume 1, published 1741, Paris, p. 107:
    Hae tot portiones terrae, immo vero, ut plures tradidere, $^{15}$mundi punctus: ( neque enim aliud est terra in universo: )
    Notae. [...] 15. Mundi punctus.] Acutum illud est Senecae dictum, lib. I. Natur. quaest. in prooem. pag. 831. Hoc est illud punctum, quod inter tot gentes ferro & igni dividitur. O quam ridiculi sunt mortalium termini, &c.
* (Medieval Latin) punctuation mark

##### Usage notes

* (point): In older editions of Pliny mundi punctus (with punctus as a 4th-declension noun) appears, while in more recent editions it is mundi puncto (with punctum or punctus as 2nd-declension noun); compare Citations:puncto.

##### Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

##### Synonyms

* (a pricking): pūnctiō
* (a point): pūnctum

##### Descendants

* → English: punctus

### Related terms

* punctim
* punctiō
* punctiuncula
* punctūra
* pungō

### References

* “punctus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* punctus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* punctus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. in an instant: puncto temporis to obtain many (few) votes in a century or tribe: multa (pauca) puncta in centuria (tribu) aliqua ferre