punctum

From Latin pūnctum. Doublet of point and punto.

punctum (plural punctums or puncta)

1. (anatomy) A sharp tip of any part of the anatomy; a point or other small area.
   • 1861, The Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Zoology, Botany, and Geology:

     Thus, from what has been stated, we see that neither the white puncta nor the minute white branchwork of lines were ever tubular.

2. (music) A neume representing a single tone.

• punctal

punctum m (plural punctums)

1. field of vision

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

Neuter form of pūnctus, the perfect passive participle of pungō (“to prick, puncture”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpunk.tum/, [ˈpʊŋkt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpunk.tum/, [ˈpuŋkt̪um]

pūnctum n (genitive pūnctī); second declension

1. (also grammar, mathematics) point
   • 1858 [1712], Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Carl Immanuel Gerhardt; Georg Heinrich Pertz, editors, Gesammelte Werke: Leibnizens mathematische Schriften [Collected Works: Leibniz's Mathematical Writings], volume 5, "In Euclidis πρῶτα" [About the first things of Euclid], page 183:

     I. Pūnctum est cujus pars nūlla est.
     Addendum est, situm habēns. Aliōquī et temporis īnstāns, et Anima pūnctum foret. Sit locus ${\displaystyle {\bar {X}}}$; sī jam quicquid est in locō ${\displaystyle {\bar {X}}}$, sit ${\displaystyle X}$, dīcētur ${\displaystyle X}$ esse pūnctum, quāle ${\displaystyle A}$.

     1. A point is that of which there is no part.
     Having a position must be added. Otherwise, both an instant of time and a Soul would be a point. Let there be a locus ${\displaystyle {\bar {X}}}$; if anything is already in the locus ${\displaystyle {\bar {X}}}$, let it be ${\displaystyle X}$. ${\displaystyle X}$ will be said to be a point, such as ${\displaystyle A}$.

2. puncture
3. moment
4. small portion
5. an affirmative vote, suffrage, ballot
6. (poetry) applause, approbation

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• pūnctus

• “punctum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “punctum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• punctum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• punctum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette