punch (v.)

"to thrust, push; jostle;" also, "to prod, drive (cattle, etc.) by poking and prodding," late 14c., from Old French ponchonner "to punch, prick, stamp," from ponchon "pointed tool, piercing weapon" (see punch (n.1)).

Meaning "to pierce, make a hole or holes in with a punch, emboss with a tool" is from early 15c.; meaning "to stab, puncture" is from mid-15c. Related: Punched; punching.

Specialized sense "to hit with the fist, give a blow, beat with blows of the fist" is recorded by 1520s. Compare Latin pugnare "to fight with the fists," from a root meaning "to pierce, sting." In English this sense-shift evolved also probably by influence of punish: Punch or punsch for punish is found in documents from 14c.-15c.:

punchyth me, Lorde, and spare my blyssyd wyff Anne. [Coventry Mystery Plays, late 15c.]

To punch (someone) out "beat (someone) up" is from 1971. To punch a ticket, etc., "make a hole in" to indicate use of it is from mid-15c. To punch the clock "record one's arrival at or departure from the workplace using an automated timing device" is from 1900.

There are time recorders for checking the minute of arrival and departure of each office employee—machines that operate with clock attachment and which in response to worker's punch print on tabular sheets of paper his promptnesses and delinquencies. [Richard Lord, "Running an Office by Machinery," in System, September 1909]

Perhaps you are some great big chief, who has a lot to say.

Who lords it o'er the common herd who chance to come your way;

Well, here is where your arrogance gets a dreadful shock,

When you march up, like a private, salute, and PUNCH THE CLOCK.

[from "Punch the Clock," by "The Skipper," The Commercial Telegraphers' Journal, May 1912]

violent, squeaky-voiced puppet-show star, 1709, shortening of Punchinello (1666), from Italian (Neapolitan) Pollecinella, Pollecenella, diminutive of pollecena "turkey pullet," probably in allusion to his big nose. The phrase pleased as punch apparently refers to his unfailing triumph over enemies. The comic weekly of this name was published in London from 1841.

"pointed tool for making holes, pricking, or embossing," late 14c., short for puncheon, from Old French ponchon, poinchon "pointed tool, piercing weapon," from Vulgar Latin *punctionem (nominative *punctio) "pointed tool," from past-participle stem of Latin pungere "to prick, pierce, sting" (from suffixed form of PIE root *peuk- "to prick").

From mid-15c. as "a stab, thrust;" late 15c. as "a dagger." Extended from the simple instrument to machines doing similar work; the meaning "machine for pressing or stamping a die" is from 1620s.

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.

"a quick blow, dig, or thrust with the fist," by 1570s, probably from punch (v.). In early use it also could refer to blows with the foot or jabs with a staff or club. Originally especially of blows that sink in to some degree ("... whom he unmercifully bruises and batters from head to foot: here a slap in the chaps, there a black eye, now a punch in the stomach, and then a kick on the breech," Monthly Review, 1763).

The figurative sense of "forceful, vigorous quality" is recorded from 1911. Punch line (also punch-line) is from 1915, originally in popular-song writing. To beat (someone) to the punch in the figurative sense is from 1915, a metaphor from boxing (where it is attested by 1913). Punch-drunk "dazed from continued punching, having taken so many punches one can no longer feel it" is from 1915 (alternative form slug-nutty is from 1933; compare sleep-drunk, 1889, "confused and excited while being half awakened from a sound sleep").