punish

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To make someone suffer for something wrong they have done.

   The teacher punished the boy for cheating on the test.

2. 2
   verb

   To treat someone harshly or unfairly.

   The new rules seem to punish families who are already struggling.

Simplified etymology

Punish entered English in the Middle English period and comes from Latin punire, a verb related to Latin poena, which originally meant “penalty” and later “pain.” Poena is also the source of pain, penal, and penalty.

From Middle English punischen, from Anglo-Norman, Old French puniss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of punir, from Latin puniō (“to inflict punishment upon”), from poena (“punishment, penalty”); see pain. Displaced Old English wītnian and (mostly, in this sense) wrecan.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary