Word of the Day
: November 3, 2010pungle
playWhat It Means
: to make a payment or contribution of money -- usually used with up
pungle in Context
We all decided to pungle up for pizza.
"They visited the pound over the weekend with their own Chihuahua, Kiki, to make sure the two dogs would get along. And they pungled up $107 to cover the adoption fee, castration fee, inoculation fee, licensing fee and microchipping fee." -- From an article by Steve Rubenstein in The San Francisco Chronicle, February 18, 2009
Did You Know?
"Pungle" is from the Spanish word "pongale," meaning "put it down," which itself is from "poner," meaning "to put" or "to place," or more specifically "to contribute money." The earliest uses of "pungle" are from the 1850s and are in reference to anteing up in games of chance. It did not take long for the word to be used in other contexts. It was in Huckleberry Finn's deadbeat dad's vocabulary: "I'll make [Judge Thatcher] pungle, too, or I'll know the reason why," Huck quotes his father in Mark Twain's famous novel. Nowadays, "pungle" is mainly used in the western part of the United States.
Test Your Memory
What is the meaning of "peculation," our featured word from October 19, 2010? The answer is ...
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