Etymology: Apparently shortened < pounsoun, variant of puncheon n.¹ Compare Anglo-Norman pounce pointed tool, tool for stamping a design (1410–11 or earlier). Compare also Middle High German punze pointed tool, tool for stamping a design (German Punze ), and also Dutch pons (1727), Swedish puns (1633), both in the same sense and ultimately < German. Compare punch n.¹

Etymology: < pounce v.¹ Compare earlier punch n.²Recorded in Eng. Dial. Dict. at Pounce sb.¹, Punce sb. from southern Scotland, west Yorkshire, Lancashire, East Anglia, and Kent.

Etymology: Apparently < French ponce pumice stone (c1200 or earlier in Anglo-Norman as punce ), although this is apparently not attested in either of the two English senses (compare, however, its sense ‘linen sachet filled with a fine powder, used to transfer a design to a surface beneath’ (1621); apparently so called because the powder originally consisted of finely ground pumice stone) < post-classical Latin pomic- , pomex (6th cent. or earlier), variant of classical Latin pūmic- , pūmex pumex n. Compare earlier pounce v.², and also earlier pumice n. and pounced stone n.It is unclear whether the following should be interpreted as showing Anglo-Norman punce pumice stone (see above) or an (apparently isolated) Middle English borrowing of this:1391 in L. T. Smith Exped. Prussia & Holy Land Earl Derby (1894) 19 Pro xviij pellibus pergameni..iiij s., et pro pounci, j d.

Etymology: < pounce v.³

Etymology: Probably < pounce n.¹ Compare Middle French poinssoner , ponchonner , French poinçonner to emboss (metalwork) by means of a puncheon (1324 in Old French as past participial adjective), to prick with a puncheon (1412), to pierce with a puncheon (1556), and also the Romance verbs cited at puncheon n.¹ Compare earlier punch v.¹, and also earlier pounsoned adj., pounsoning n.

Etymology: < Middle French, French poncer to polish (an object or the skin) with pumice (end of the 13th cent. in Old French in past participle poncé ; earlier in sense ‘to remove body hair (using a pumice)’ (first half of the 13th cent. in Old French)), to transfer (a design) to a surface by dusting a perforated pattern with pounce (although this is apparently first attested later: 1621) < ponce pounce n.³ Compare classical Latin pūmicāre to polish with pumice ( < pūmic- , pūmex pumex n.). Compare later pounce n.³ N.E.D. (1907) records a sense ‘to paint or powder (the cheeks)’ for French poncer, but this sense is apparently not recorded in recent authoritative dictionaries of the language. It is likely that N.E.D. (1907) here followed F. Godefroy Dict. de l'ancienne langue française (1889) VI. 271/3, where the earliest Old French occurrence of the verb is glossed ‘se farder’, i.e. ‘to apply rouge to (one's face)’; however, Trésor de la langue française at poncer interprets this occurrence as ‘to remove body hair (using pumice)’. On the other hand, perhaps compare post-classical Latin punicare to rouge (the face) (c1250 in British sources; of uncertain origin, perhaps a transmission error for pūmicāre: see above).

Etymology: < pounce n.¹ (compare branch II., and especially sense 7, at that entry).