a name of a type of alcoholic drink, by 1600. It is commonly said to be from Hindi panch "five," and so called for the number of its ingredients: citrus juice, water, spirits, sugar, and spice. (This Hindi word is ultimately from PIE root *penkwe- "five.")
The explanation traces to John Fryer's "A New Account of East India and Persia, in Eight Letters" (1698), but lexicographers have long noted phonetic and historical difficulties. There is no evidence of a drink called panch in India, or elsewhere, before the English word; and the English word is now known to have been in use before the English became regular traders to the Indies or attempted settlements in India.
Mixtures similar to the five-ingredient punch had been drunk in Europe since the Middle Ages, made with wine. Distilled spirits became common in England only during 17c., which also was when the punch drink became common. By 1650s punch is called "an Indian drink." It much resembles the Middle Eastern drink sherbet, which differed only in being non-alcoholic; but the association could have been with the East India Company trade that made the drink's exotic ingredients affordable in England. In 17c. sources it is as often associated with the West Indies:
[T]here is a pernicious sort of Drink in great Reputation and Use amongst them [our Country-men, viz. in Iamaica, Barbadoes and the Leward Islands], call'd, PVNCH , [...] This sort of beloved Liquor is made of Brandy or Run, Sugar, Water, Lime-Iuice, and sometimes Ginger or Nutmegs: Now here are four or five Ingredients, all of as different Natures as Light is from Darkness, and all great Extreams in their kind, except only the Water. [Thomas Tryon, "The planter's speech to his neighbours & country-men of Pennsylvania, East & West Jersey and to all such as have transported themselves into new-colonies for the sake of a quiet retired life." 1684.]
English punch is first attested in the term punch pot (spelled paunche pot), and the reference might be to a drink served from a particular type of vessel rather than to a particular beverage recipe. Older spelling suggests possible connection with or influence from paunch. A proposed connection to puncheon (n.1) is noted in OED: "the name [...] may have been a sailors' shortening of puncheon, as that to which sailors would look for their allowance of liquor." But earliest use does not suggest nautical origin.
A puncheon or poncheon (attested by c. 1400) also was the name of a unit of measurement for wine or liquor of roughly 70 gallons, more than a household’s daily use, but history records punch bowls of considerable size meant to serve large gatherings, which could link it to the vessel. Also compare Middle French dialectal variants of poncheon, such as pochon, with senses that included: a cup or glass, a large ladle for soup, and a kind of three-footed pan or casserole dish.
Compare also Falernum and daiquiri.
