Pierce

How to spell pierce

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pierce

What does pierce mean?

1. verbTo make a hole in or through something with a sharp pointed object.

Pierce in a sentence

• The nurse used a fine needle to pierce the skin before the injection.

• She paid a jeweller to pierce her ears for the new earrings.

Where does pierce come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the early 1300s from the Old French verb percer, meaning 'to make a hole through' or 'to bore into'. The Old French form is thought to descend from a Vulgar Latin verb pertusiare, itself built on the Latin pertundere, which combined per- (meaning 'through') with tundere (meaning 'to beat, strike, or thrust'); the literal idea was therefore to drive something straight through an object. Over time the English word kept that core physical meaning of penetrating with a sharp point, while also developing figurative uses such as a sound or a feeling that seems to cut through someone. The surname Percy and the famous 'Piers Plowman' character preserve related medieval forms of the name. A useful spelling note is that pierce follows the 'i before e' pattern after a sound that is not a hard c, which is exactly why it is spelled p-i-e-r-c-e and not p-e-i-r-c-e.

How the word is built

• from Old French percer; analysable as per- (through)
• the root sense of thrusting or boring through