Hitting someone or something quickly and forcefully with your closed fist, or making a hole by striking with a tool.
Possibly from Italian 'punzone' (punch tool), derived from Latin 'punctio' (a pricking or stabbing). The word's meaning shifted from using a tool to make holes to the act of hitting with a fist.
The 'Punchcard' computer punch (which created computer programming!) was named after the same tool as a fist punch—both made holes by striking! This vocabulary overlap shows how one technology (punch tools) influenced the language of a completely different technology (early computers).
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