puncheon
/ˈpʌntʃən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.01 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A split log or heavy slab of timber with the face smoothed, used especially for flooring but also for log cabin walls, piers, or plank roads.
noun
A walkway or short, low footbridge over wet ground constructed with such timbers, made by laying one or more planks or dressed timbers over sills set directly on the ground.
noun
A short low bridge of similar construction.
Example Sentences
- "he chose to regard [his father] with a lowering and suspicious mien, unless it were in the dead hours of the night, when he developed a morbid craving to be trotted back and forth and up and down the puncheon floor [...]."
- "Once in the Grenada islands, when I and above eight others were pulling a large boat with two puncheons of water in it, a surf struck us, and drove the boat and all in it about half a stone's throw, among some trees, and above the high water mark."
- "Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons."
- "Then he went to the scullery, wetted his hands, scooped the last white dough out of the punchion, and dropped it in a baking-tin."
Etymology
From Middle English punchoun, from Anglo-Norman ponchon, pounceon et al., and Middle French ponçon, poinchon et al., from Old French ponchon, from Latin pūnctiōnem (“act of piercing”). Doublet of punction. Related to Middle High German punze (“chisel; burin, graver”), ponze (“puncheon, standardized cask”), German Punze (“puncheon, punch, counter”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: punchoun, ponchon, ponçon, punctio
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈpʌntʃən/