Online Etymology Dictionary

punch (v.): "to drive (cattle, etc.) by poking and prodding," c.1382, from O.Fr. ponchonner "to punch, prick, stamp," from ponchon "pointed tool, piercing weapon" (see punch (n.1)). Meaning "to stab, puncture" is from c.1440. Specific meaning of "to hit with the fist" first recorded 1530, probably influenced by punish; noun sense of "a blow with the fist" is recorded by 1580. Noun in the figurative sense of "forceful, vigorous quality" is recorded from 1911. To beat (someone) to the punch is from 1923, a metaphor from boxing. Punch line is from 1921; punch-drunk is from 1915. To punch a ticket, etc., is c.1440, probably from a shortening of puncheon "pointed tool," from O.Fr. ponchon.
Punch: the puppet show star, 1709, shortening of Punchinello (1666), from It. (Neapolitan) Pollecinella, dim. of pollecena "turkey pullet," probably in allusion to his big nose. The phrase pleased as punch apparently refers to his unfailing triumph over enemies. The comic weekly of this name was published in London from 1841.
punch (n.2): "mixed drink," 1632, traditionally said to derive from Hindi panch "five," in allusion to the number of original ingredients (spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, spice), from Skt. panchan-s.
puncheon: "cask for liquor," 1479, from M.Fr. poinchon (13c.), of unknown origin. Uncertain connection with puncheon "slab of timber" (1466), also "pointed tool for punching" (see punch (n.1)).
punch (n.1): "pointed tool," c.1460, short for puncheon (1367), from O.Fr. ponchon "pointed tool, piercing weapon," from V.L. *punctionem (nom. punctio) "pointed tool," from L. punctus, pp. of pungere "to prick" (see pungent). Meaning "machine for pressing or stamping a die" is from 1628.
pounce (v.): 1686, originally "to seize with the pounces," from pownse (n.) "hawk's claws" (1486), from O.Fr. poinçon (see punch (v.)), on the notion of the claws that punch holes in things. In falconry, the heel claw is a talon, and others are pounces.
cartoon: 1671, from Fr. carton, from It. cartone "strong, heavy paper, pasteboard," thus "preliminary sketches made by artists on such paper," augmentive of M.L. carta "paper" (see card (n.)). Extension to comical drawings in newspapers and magazines is 1843. Cartoonist first recorded 1880.
"Punch has the benevolence to announce, that in an early number of his ensuing Volume he will astonish the Parliamentary Committee by the publication of several exquisite designs, to be called Punch's Cartoons!" ["Punch," June 24, 1843]
land (v.2): "to make contact, to hit home" (of a punch, etc.), altered from lend in a playful sense.
buffet (v.): early 13c., from O.Fr. bufet "slap, punch," dim. of bufe "a blow, puff of wind," probably echoic of the sound of something soft being hit.
jab: 1825, "to thrust with a point," Scot. variant of job "to strike, pierce, thrust," from M.E. jobben "to jab, thrust, peck" (c.1490), of unknown origin, perhaps echoic. Noun meaning "a punch with the fist" is from 1889. Sense of "injection with a hypodermic needle" is from 1914.
cope (v.): c.1350, from O.Fr. couper, earlier colper "hit, punch," from colp "a blow" (see coup). Meaning of "come to blows with" evolved 17c. into "handle successfully," perhaps influenced by obs. cope "to traffic" (15c.-17c.), a word in North Sea trade, from the Flem. version of the Gmc. source of Eng. cheap (q.v.).
conk: as in conk out, 1918, coined by World War I airmen, perhaps in imitation of the sound of a stalling motor, reinforced by conk (v.) "hit on the head," originally "punch in the nose" (1821), from conk (n.), slang for "nose" (1812), perhaps from fancied resemblance to a conch (pronounced "conk") shell.
douse: 1559, "to strike, punch," which is probably from M.Du. dossen "beat forcefully." Meaning "to strike a sail in haste" is recorded from 1627; that of "to extinguish (a light)" is from 1785; perhaps influenced by dout (1526), an obsolete contraction of do out (cf. doff, don). OED regards the meaning "to throw water over" (1606) as a separate word, of unknown origin, though admitting there may be a connection of some sort.
brunch: 1896, British student slang merger of breakfast and lunch.
"To be fashionable nowadays we must 'brunch'. Truly an excellent portmanteau word, introduced, by the way, last year, by Mr. Guy Beringer, in the now defunct Hunter's Weekly, and indicating a combined breakfast and lunch." ["Punch," Aug. 1, 1896]
slap (v.): 1632, probably of imitative origin, similar to Low Ger. slappe, Ger. Schlappe. The noun is recorded from 1648; fig. meaning "insult" is attested from 1736. Slapdash (1679) is first attested in Dryden. Slap-happy (1936) originally meant "punch-drunk." Slapshot in ice hockey is recorded from 1942. Slap on the wrist "very mild punishment" dates from 1914.
pack (v.): c.1300, "to put together in a pack," from pack (n.), possibly influenced by Anglo-Fr. empaker (1294) and M.L. paccare "pack." Some senses suggesting "make secret arrangement" are from an Elizabethan mispronunciation of pact. Sense of "to carry or convey in a pack" (1805) led to general sense of "to carry in any manner;" hence to pack heat "carry a gun," underworld slang from 1940s; "to be capable of delivering" (a punch, etc.) is from 1921.
interfere: 1440, "to strike against," from M.Fr. enterferer "to strike each other," from entre- "between" + ferir "to strike," from L. ferire "to knock, strike," related to L. forare "to bore, pierce," and cognate with O.E. borian "to bore" (cf. punch (v.), which has both the sense "to hit" and "to make a hole in"). Fig. sense of "to meddle with, oppose unrightfully" is from 1632.
flapper: "forward young woman," 1921 slang, from flap (v.), but the exact connection is disputed. Perhaps from flapper "young wild-duck or partridge" (1747), with ref. to flapping wings while learning to fly; but other suggested sources are late 19c. northern Eng. dialectal use for "teen-age girl" (on notion of one with the hair not yet put up), or an earlier meaning "prostitute" (1889), which is perhaps from dial. flap "young woman of loose character" (1610s). In Britain the word took on political tones in ref. to the debate over voting rights.
" 'Flapper' is the popular press catch-word for an adult woman worker, aged twenty-one to thirty, when it is a question of giving her the vote under the same conditions as men of the same age." ["Punch," Nov. 30, 1927]
rabbit: late 14c., "young of the coney," from Fr. dialect (cf. Walloon robète), dim. of Flem. or M.Du. robbe "rabbit," of unknown origin. The adult was a coney (q.v.) until 18c.
"Zoologically speaking, there are no native rabbits in the United States; they are all hares. But the early colonists, for some unknown reason, dropped the word hare out of their vocabulary, and it is rarely heard in American speech to this day. When it appears it is almost always applied to the so-called Belgian hare, which, curiously enough, is not a hare at all, but a true rabbit." [H.L. Mencken]
Rabbit punch "chop on the back of the neck" so called from resemblance to a gamekeeper's method of dispatching an injured rabbit. Rabbit's foot "good luck charm" first attested 1879, in U.S. Southern black culture. Pulling rabbits from a hat as a conjurer's trick is first recorded 1877.
son of a bitch: 1707 as a direct phrase, but implied much earlier.
"Abide þou þef malicious!
Biche-sone þou drawest amis
þou schalt abigge it ywis!"
["Of Arthour & of Merlin," c.1330]
"Probably the most common American vulgarity from about the middle of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth" [Rawson].
"Our maid-of-all-work in that department [indecency] is son-of-a-bitch, which seems as pale and ineffectual to a Slav or a Latin as fudge does to us. There is simply no lift in it, no shock, no sis-boom-ah. The dumbest policeman in Palermo thinks of a dozen better ones between breakfast and the noon whistle." [H.L. Mencken, "The American Language," 4th ed., 1936, p.317-8]
Abbreviated form SOB from 1918. Mencken, complaining of the tepidity of the American vocabulary of profanity, writes that the toned-down form son-of-a-gun "is so lacking in punch that the Italians among us have borrowed it as a satirical name for an American: la sanemagogna is what they call him, and by it they indicate their contempt for his backwardness in the art that is one of their great glories."
plant (n.): O.E. plante "young tree or shrub, herb newly planted," from L. planta "sprout, shoot, cutting," perhaps from *plantare "to drive in with the feet, push into the ground with the feet," from planta "sole of the foot," from nasalized form of PIE *plat- "flat" (see place (n.)). Ger. Pflanze, Ir. cland, Welsh plant are from Latin. Broader sense of "any vegetable life" is first recorded 1551. The verb, "put in the ground to grow," is O.E. plantian, from L. plantare, from planta. Most extended usages are from the verbal sense. Sense of a building "planted" or begun for an industrial process is first attested 1789. Slang meaning "a spy" is first recorded 1812. Planter "proprietor of a cultivated estate in W.Indies or southern colonies of N.America" is attested from 1647; hence planter's punch (1924).
take (v.): late O.E. tacan, from a N.Gmc. source (e.g. O.N. taka "take, grasp, lay hold," past tense tok, pp. tekinn; Swed. ta, pp. tagit), from P.Gmc. *tækanan (cf. M.L.G. tacken, M.Du. taken, Goth. tekan "to touch"), of uncertain origin, perhaps originally meaning "to touch." Gradually replaced M.E. nimen as the verb for "to take," from O.E. niman, from the usual W.Gmc. *nem- root (cf. Ger. nehmen, Du. nemen), also of unknown origin. OED calls it "one of the elemental words of the language;" take up alone has 55 varieties of meaning in that dictionary. Basic sense is "to lay hold of," which evolved to "accept, receive" (as in take my advice) c.1200; "absorb" (she can take a punch) c.1200; "to choose, select" (take the long way home) late 13c.; "to make, obtain" (take a shower) late 14c.; "to become affected by" (take sick) c.1300. Take five is 1929, from the approximate time it takes to smoke a cigarette. Take it easy first recorded 1880; take the plunge "act decisively" is from 1876; take the rap "accept (undeserved) punishment" is from 1930. Phrase take it or leave it is recorded from 1897.