Did You Know?
We'll get straight to the point: there are a number of English words that come from Latin "pungere," meaning "to prick" or "to sting." "Punctilio" is one of these words. It traces back to "pungere" by way of Italian "puntiglio" (meaning "small point," "point of honor," or "scruple"), Spanish "puntillo" (the diminutive of "punto," meaning "point"), and Latin "punctum" (also meaning "point"). The adjective "punctilious," meaning "marked by or concerned about precise accordance with the details of codes or conventions," is a close relative of "punctilio." Do you have any guesses for other "pungere" derivatives? "Punctuate," "puncture," "compunction," "punctual," and "pungent" are some of the more common ones.
