puˈnaise, puˈnese Obs. exc. as Fr.
Forms: α. 6– punaise (pjuːˈneɪz); also 6 punayse, 6–8 punese (pjuːˈniːz), 7–8 puneze, punice, 8 punaize. β. 6–8 punie, 7 puny, -ee (ˈpjuːnɪ).
[a. F. punaise (pynɛz) a bed-bug, prop. fem. of the adj. punais stinking, fetid. The form punee, punie arose as a false singular of punese: cf. cherry, Chinee.]
A bed-bug. Also, with defining words, applied to other noxious insects.
| α 1515 Barclay Egloges iii. (1570) B vj/2 Make thee readye..For lise, for fleas, punaises, mise and rattes. 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 138 Gnates, puneses, flies. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. lx. 402 The leaues..driueth away the stinking punayses. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 356 The said punices ought to be lapped in a reddish clout of a carnation colour. 1669 Davenant Man's the Master ii. i, They sleep so soundly that Puneses cannot wake 'em. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. i. 437 His Flea, his Morpion, and Punese, H' had gotten for his proper ease. 1712 Cooke Voy. S. Sea 61 Nor..will it so much as suffer any Punaises, or Bugs..to live. 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. iv. (1818) I. 142 On dissecting the brain of a woman there were found in it abundance of vermicles and punaises. |
| β 1598 Florio, Cimici, a kinde of vermin in Italie that..biteth sore, called punies or wall-lise. 1601 Holland Pliny II. xxix. iv, Punies or wall lice, the most ill-favored and filthie vermine of all other, and which we loth and abhorre at the verie naming of them. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden clxvi, Called a wall-louse or puny in English. 1681 Grew Musæum i. vii. ii. 171 The Great Winged Punee. Cimex sylvestris alatus major. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Rasberry bush, The Strawberry-Bushes are infested with Field-Punies. |