pun|cheon

pun|cheon¹ «PUHN chuhn», noun.

1. a large cask for liquor, varying in size from 70 to 120 gallons.

2. the amount that it holds, used as a unit of capacity.

╂[< Old French poinchon, poinçon, and ponson; origin uncertain. The Old French forms are identical with those of puncheon², but there seems to be no connection between the words.]

pun|cheon² «PUHN chuhn», noun.

1. a slab of timber or a piece of a split log, with a roughly smoothed face.

2. a short, upright piece of wood in the frame of a building.

3. Obsolete. an instrument for punching; punch.

╂[< Old French poinchon, and poinçon < Vulgar Latin pūnctiō, -ōnis a punch, awl (in Latin, a pricking) < Latin pungere to pierce]