pons

See also: Pons

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pōns (“bridge”). Doublet of Pontus.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: pŏnz, IPA^(key): /ˈpɑnz/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒnz/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: pōnz, IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊnz/ (prescribed)
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpəʊnz/ (prescribed)
• Rhymes: -ɒnz, -ɑnz

Noun

pons (plural pontes)

1. (anatomy) A bridge-like tissue connecting two parts of an organ.
2. (neuroanatomy) A band of nerve fibres, from the Latin term pōns Varoliī, within the brain stem.

Holonyms

• brain stem, brainstem

Related terms

• pontine
• pons asinorum

Translations

bridge-like tissua

• Finnish: silta (fi)

part of the brain

• Arabic: جسر
• Czech: most (cs) m
• Esperanto: cerba ponto
• Estonian: sild (et), ajusild
• Finnish: aivosilta (fi)
• French: pont (fr) m
• German: Pons m
• Greek: γέφυρα (el) f (géfyra)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: pirik (ku) f

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hjernebro m or f, hjernebru m or f

  Nynorsk: hjernebru f

• Polish: most (pl) m
• Spanish: puente troncoencefálico m, pons (es) m
• Swedish: hjärnbrygga (sv), pons (sv)
• Turkish: köprü (tr)

Anagrams

• NOPs, NPOs, Nops, OPNs, nops

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈpɔns]

Verb

pons

1. second-person singular present indicative of pondre

Cornish

Etymology

From Middle Cornish pons, from Old Cornish pons, from Proto-Brythonic *pont, a borrowing from Latin pōns, pōntem. Cognate with Breton and Welsh pont.

Noun

pons m (plural ponsow)

1. bridge

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɔns/
• Hyphenation: pons
• Rhymes: -ɔns

Etymology 1

Borrowed from German Punze.

Noun

pons m (plural ponsen, diminutive ponsje n)

1. punch (tool for punching or drilling holes)

Derived terms

• ponsen

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English punch.

Noun

pons m (uncountable)

1. Obsolete form of punch.

Galician

Verb

pons

1. (reintegrationist norm, less recommended) second-person singular present indicative of pôr

Latin

pōns (bridge)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *ponts, from Proto-Indo-European *pónteh₁s (“path, road”), from *pent- (“path”). Cognate with Sanskrit पन्था (pánthā-), Ancient Greek πόντος (póntos), Old Armenian հուն (hun, “riverbed”), Old English findan (English find), and Old Church Slavonic пѫть (pǫtĭ, “road”). Doublet of Pontus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /pons/, [põːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /pons/, [pɔns]

Noun

pōns m (genitive pontis); third declension

1. A bridge, a construction or natural feature that spans a divide.
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 6.6:

     Caesar partitis copiis cum Gaio Fabio legato et Marco Crasso quaestore celeriterque effectis pontibus adit tripertito, aedificia vicosque incendit, magno pecoris atque hominum numero potitur.

     Caesar, having divided his forces with C. Fabius, his lieutenant, and M. Crassus his questor, and having hastily constructed some bridges, enters their country in three divisions, burns their houses and villages, and gets possession of a large number of cattle and men.

2. (nautical) deck
   • c. 117 CE, Tacitus, Annales 2.6:

     Multae pontibus stratae, super quas tormenta veherentur.

     Many (ships) were covered with decks, on which engines for missiles might be conveyed.

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pōns	pontēs
Genitive	pontis	pontium
Dative	pontī	pontibus
Accusative	pontem	pontēs pontīs
Ablative	ponte	pontibus
Vocative	pōns	pontēs

Derived terms

• pōns Varoliī (“bridge of Cōnstantius Varolius / Costanzo Varolio”) (brain stem)
• pōns asinōrum
• ponticulus
• pontifex
• pontō

Descendants

• Aromanian: punti f
• Asturian: ponte f, puente m
• Neapolitan: puonti
• Catalan: pont m
• Dalmatian: puant m
• English: pons, pontine
• French: pont m
• Friulian: puint m
• Istriot: ponto m
• Italian: ponte m
• Ladin: puent
• Mirandese: puonte f
• Occitan: pònt m
• Old Occitan: Ponce (now a place name and surname)
• Old Galician-Portuguese: ponte f
  • Galician: ponte f
  • Portuguese: ponte f
• Romanian: punte f
• Romansch: punt f, pùnt f
• Sardinian: ponte, ponti
• Sicilian: ponti
• Spanish: puente m
• Venetan: pónte m, pónt
• Walloon: pont
• → Proto-Brythonic: *pont (see there for further descendants)

See also

• pontus

References

• “pons”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pons”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pons 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)
• pons in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to build a bridge over a river: pontem facere in flumine
    
  • to build a bridge over a river: inicere pontem
    
  • there is a bridge over the river: pons est in flumine
    
  • to break down a bridge: pontem dissolvere, rescindere, interscindere (B. G. 2. 9. 4)
    
  • (ambiguous) to build a bridge over a river: flumen ponte iungere
    
• “pons”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “pons”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 479-480

Volapük

Noun

pons

1. nominative plural of pon