punese

English

Alternative forms

• punice

Etymology

From French punaise, from punais (“stinking”), from Latin putere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpjuːniːz/

Noun

punese (plural puneses)

1. (obsolete, rare) A bedbug.
   • 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     His Flea, his Morpion, and Punese,
     He 'ad gotten for his proper Ease

References

“punese”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.