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poniard

[pon-yerd]
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noun
  1. a small, slender dagger.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to stab with a poniard.
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Origin of poniard

1580–90; < French poignard, derivative of poing fist < Latin pugnus; see -ard
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

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Examples from the Web for poniard

Historical Examples

  • He remembered giving her this poniard on the very day of her crime.

    The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals

    Ann S. Stephens

  • Ask him if he did not see this poniard in her room while she lay unburied in the house.

  • "Let me look at the poniard," she said, with unnatural gentleness.

  • His instruments were a silver cup, a poniard, and a handjar.

    Tancred

    Benjamin Disraeli

  • It cut to the heart's palpitating centre like a poniard thrust.

British Dictionary definitions for poniard

poniard

noun
  1. a small dagger with a slender blade
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verb
  1. (tr) to stab with a poniard
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Word Origin

C16: from Old French poignard dagger, from poing fist, from Latin pugnus; related to Latin pugnāre to fight
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for poniard

n.

1580s, from Middle French poinard (early 16c.), from Old French poignal "dagger," literally "anything grasped with the fist," from poing "fist," from Latin pungus "fist," from PIE root *peuk- (see pugnacious). Probably altered in French by association with poindre "to stab." Cf. Latin pugnus "fist," pugio "dagger." As a verb from c.1600.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper