Etymology

punch dialogue

punch di·a·logue

Today it means: Chiefly in a film: a retort or a witty line, commonly written to be spoken by the protagonist to excite fans of the actor delivering them. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

From punch + dialogue, with dialogue used loosely to mean a spoken line. The term possibly compares the force of the line to a punch (similar to punch line), or because many of these lines are delivered immediately preceding a fight scene (compare fighting words).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.