Punt

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /pʌnt/

Definitions

1. To move a flat-bottomed boat by pushing a pole against the riverbed ; to kick a ball, especially by dropping and striking it in sports like football ; to risk money or something valuable on an uncertain outcome
2. The act of pushing a punt boat forward by pushing a pole into the waterbed ; forcefully sending a ball through the air by kicking ; making a speculative decision or bet hoping for a gain
3. Using a long pole to propel a shallow boat gently along a river ; striking a ball with the foot to send it far ; engaging in a chance-based wager or speculative effort

Etymology: The word "punt" is a crowded family of unrelated senses, and the boat is its oldest. It descends from Latin "pontō", a Gaulish flat-bottomed vessel whose name went back to "pons", meaning "bridge", a reminder that such craft were first used to ferry people and goods across rivers. The English form came from Old English, and the Middle Low German and Middle Dutch "punte", meaning ferry boat, was taken in again later. The kicking sense is a different story. It comes from rugby, where a player drops the ball and kicks it before it touches the ground, and it may be a dialectal variant of "bunt", a word for pushing or butting. Because this sense and the boat sense share a spelling, they are unconnected in practice. Other senses have their own origins. The word for a bet against the bank in gambling was borrowed from French "pointe" or Spanish "punto", meaning "point", and the Irish "punt", the former currency, came from Middle English "pund", which is also the source of "pound".

Synonyms: kick, boot, propel, send, launch