poignant

English

WOTD – 20 March 2008

Etymology

From Middle English poynaunt, poynant, borrowed from Anglo-Norman puignant, poynaunt etc., present participle of poindre (“to prick”), from Latin pungō (“prick”). Doublet of pungent.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɪnjənt/, [ˈpɔɪɲ.ənt]
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɪnənt/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Hyphenation: poign‧ant (per American Heritage and Random House); poi‧gnant (per Merriam-Webster)

Adjective

poignant (comparative more poignant, superlative most poignant)

1. (obsolete, of a weapon, etc.) Sharp-pointed; keen.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     His siluer shield, now idle maisterlesse; / His poynant speare, that many made to bleed [...].

2. Neat; eloquent; applicable; relevant.

   A poignant reply will garner more credence than hours of blown smoke.

3. Evoking strong mental sensation, to the point of distress; emotionally moving.

   Synonyms: distressing, moving

   Flipping through his high school yearbook evoked many a poignant memory of yesteryear.

   • 1905, Edith Wharton, chapter XIV, in The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 528:

     The shabby chest of drawers was spread with a lace cover, and set out with a few gold-topped boxes and bottles, a rose-coloured pin-cushion, a glass tray strewn with tortoise-shell hair[-]pins—he shrank from the poignant intimacy of these trifles, and from the blank surface of the toilet-mirror above them.

   • 2004, Andrew Radford, Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, §1.4, page 13:

     A particularly poignant example of this is a child called Genie (see Curtiss 1977; Rymer 1993), who was deprived of speech input and kept locked up on her own in a room until age thirteen. When eventually taken into care and exposed to intensive language input, her vocabulary grew enormously, but her syntax never developed.

   • 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     Hanks shepherds the young girl to safety – first brusquely, and then with a sudden outburst of affection made all the more poignant for the way it is reserved previously. He once again reminds us, quite literally, that he is in many ways the ultimate dad.

4. (figuratively, of a smell, taste) Piquant, pungent.
5. (figuratively, of a look, word) Incisive; penetrating; piercing.

   His comments were poignant and witty.

6. (chiefly British, dated) Inducing sharp physical pain.

Related terms

• poignancy
• poignantly

Translations

sharp-pointed; keen

• Bulgarian: остър (bg) (ostǎr)
• Catalan: punyent, penetrant (ca), punxegut m
• Danish: spids (da)
• Finnish: terävä (fi)
• German: spitz (de), zugespitzt (de)
• Greek: αιχημρός (aichimrós), οξύς (el) (oxýs)
• Italian: appuntito (it), affilato (it)
• Japanese: 鋭い (ja) (surudoi)
• Polish: ostry (pl) m
• Portuguese: pontiagudo (pt)
• Russian: о́стрый (ru) (óstryj)
• Slovak: špicatý, zahrotený
• Spanish: puntiagudo (es), punzo-cortante

neat; eloquent; applicable; relevant

• Catalan: clar (ca) m, eloqüent, penetrant (ca)
• Danish: træffende
• Finnish: osuva (fi)
• German: treffend (de), zutreffend (de), relevant (de)
• Hungarian: találó (hu)
• Italian: chiaro (it), eloquente (it), acuto (it), penetrante (it)
• Japanese: 鋭い (ja) (surudoi)
• Polish: cięty (pl)
• Portuguese: claro (pt), eloquente (pt), penetrante (pt)
• Spanish: claro (es), elocuente (es), agudo (es), penetrante (es)

evoking strong mental sensation

• Catalan: punyent, commovedor (ca) m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: schrijnend (nl)
• Faroese: hjartanemandi, rørandi
• Finnish: kipeä (fi), arka (fi) (evoking sharp mental pain); liikuttava (fi) (emotionally moving)
• German: ergreifend (de), packend (de), eindringlich (de), anrührend (de), rührend (de), erschütternd (de), bitter (de), quälend (de)
• Greek: σπαραχτικός (el) (sparachtikós)
• Hungarian: megrendítő (hu), szívbe markoló, felkavaró (hu), szívet tépő
• Italian: emozionante (it), toccante (it), intenso (it) m, commovente (it)
• Japanese: 痛烈 (ja) (tsūretsu)
• Maori: whakaaroha
• Polish: wzruszający (pl)
• Portuguese: pungente (pt), emocionante (pt), comovente (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: tiamhaidh
• Spanish: conmovedor (es)

piquant; pungent

• Bulgarian: пикантен (bg) (pikanten)
• Catalan: picant (ca), punyent
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: pikant (nl), scherp (nl)
• Finnish: pikantti, kirpeä (fi), pistävä (fi)
• German: stechend (de), streng (de), pikant (de), scharf (de), beißend (de), aufdringlich (de)
• Hungarian: csípős (hu), pikáns (hu)
• Italian: piccante (it), pungente (it)
• Japanese: 鋭い (ja) (surudoi)
• Polish: ostry (pl)
• Portuguese: pungente (pt), picante (pt)
• Russian: ре́зкий (о запахе) (rézkij (o zapaxe))
• Slovak: pichľavý, pikantný
• Spanish: picante (es), pungente, punzante (es)
• Swedish: stark (sv)

incisive; penetrating

• Bulgarian: пронизващ (bg) (pronizvašt)
• Catalan: punyent, incisiu m, penetrant (ca), agut (ca) m
• Danish: spydig
• Finnish: kärkevä, pisteliäs (fi)
• German: schneidend (de), eindringend (de), spitz (de), durchdringend (de)
• Greek: αιχμηρός (el) (aichmirós), διαπεραστικός (el) (diaperastikós)
• Hungarian: elevenbe vágó, metsző (hu)
• Italian: incisivo (it) m, penetrante (it), acuto (it) m
• Japanese: 鋭い (ja) (surudoi), 痛烈な (tsūretsu-na), 辛辣な (shinratsu-na)
• Polish: ostry (pl) m
• Portuguese: incisivo, penetrante (pt), agudo (pt)
• Russian: прони́зывающий (ru) (pronízyvajuščij)
• Slovak: ostrý, prenikavý
• Spanish: incisivo (es), penetrante (es), agudo (es)

piercing

• Bulgarian: пронизващ (bg) (pronizvašt)
• Catalan: punyent, incisiu m
• Danish: spiddende
• Finnish: läpitunkeva
• German: durchdringend (de)
• Greek: διαπεραστικός (el) (diaperastikós)
• Hungarian: éles (hu), átható (hu)
• Italian: penetrante (it)
• Japanese: 鋭い (ja) (surudoi)
• Portuguese: penetrante (pt)
• Russian: прони́зывающий (ru) (pronízyvajuščij)
• Slovak: prenikavý

inducing sharp physical pain

• Bulgarian: болезнен (bg) (boleznen)
• Catalan: punyent, dolorós (ca) m
• Finnish: pistävä (fi), kivulias (fi)
• German: schmerzlich (de), schmerzhaft (de)
• Greek: οδυνηρός (el) (odynirós), επίπονος (el) (epíponos)
• Hungarian: nyilalló
• Italian: doloroso (it)
• Japanese: 鋭い (ja) (surudoi)
• Portuguese: doloroso (pt)
• Slovak: bodavý

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989
• Webster Third New International 1986

Anagrams

• Paignton

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French poignant, present participle of poindre. Possibly corresponds to Latin pungentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pwa.ɲɑ̃/

Participle

poignant

1. present participle of poindre
2. present participle of poigner

Adjective

poignant (feminine poignante, masculine plural poignants, feminine plural poignantes)

1. poignant

Further reading

• “poignant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

Etymology

Present participle of poindre. Possibly corresponds to Latin pungēns, pungentem.

Verb

poignant

1. present participle of poindre

Adjective

poignant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular poignant or poignante)

1. pointed; pointy

Descendants

• → English: poignant
• French: poignant