Punctus

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpʌŋktəs/

Definitions

1. A term referring to a dot or point used in medieval music notation and manuscripts to indicate a pause or a specific pitch; it can also denote a small mark or punctuation in texts and symbols
2. A symbol historically employed in early musical scores and written works to signify a pause in sound or a textual separation; also used as a decorative or functional point in various forms of notation
3. An ancient notation sign representing a pause in chant or a textual break; it may also be utilized as a point marking in manuscript writing or symbolic representation in classical contexts

Etymology: "Punctus" is a Medieval Latin word meaning "punctuation mark," and it reached English as a term for the small signs that organised medieval music. Its ultimate source is the Latin verb "pungere," "to prick" or "to pierce," so the core idea is a mark made by a point. That same picture of a tiny dot or stroke set onto a page gave us the word "point" in its many senses, and "punctuation" comes from the same stem. In medieval notation, a punctus was a dot-like sign written in the staff to mark where a note fell, and the word came to name the pause or division in a line of chant that such marks indicated. Music therefore borrowed a grammatical term for the act of dividing a text into phrases and reused it for dividing sound into moments of silence and phrasing.

Synonyms: point, dot, mark