Etymology

demipointe

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Today it means: The ball of the foot, the padded front part of the sole behind the tip of the toes; hence, a ballet position executed with the dancer up on the balls of one or both feet, the heels raised up off the floor. Full definition →

Old French demi ← Latin dīmidius ← French pointe
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The story

  1. Late Latin · derived frompūnctum
  2. French · borrowed frompointe“point, tip”
  3. Latin · derived fromdīmidius“halved”
  4. Old French · derived fromdemi
  5. English todaydemipointe

From demi- (“half”) + pointe (“tip of the toe”), via Old French demi from Latin dīmidius (“halved”), combined with French pointe (“point, tip”) from Late Latin pūnctum; in this sense short for pointe des pieds (“tippy-toe”, literally “tip of the feet”); cf. French sur la pointe des pieds (“on tiptoe”).

Words from the same roots

Latindīmidius all →

demidemi-

Frenchpointe all →

pointepuntLa PointePointe à la HachePointe Coupee Parish

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.