pewk-
“to prick, sting”Source of Latin pungere, English point, punch, puncture
Root for pricking, producing Latin pungere and English point, punch, puncture, poignant.
Discussion
The PIE root *pewk- (to prick, to sting, to stab with a point) produced vocabulary for sharp-pointed tools, stinging insects, and the act of puncturing — all united by the image of a point penetrating a surface.
Latin pungere (to prick, to sting, to puncture) continues the root and gave English an extensive technical vocabulary: puncture (a pricking-through), punctual (arriving at the exact point — on the dot), punctuation (the points and marks that prick a text into readable units), point (from Latin punctum, "a prick-mark" — then any precise location), appoint (to fix to a point), disappoint (to remove from the expected point), pungent (pricking the nose — a sharp smell), compunction (a pricking of conscience), and expunge (to prick out, to erase by stabbing through).
The word pugilist (pugil, "a boxer" — one who strikes with the fist, the closed point of the hand) may be connected through the striking sense.
Greek pýx (πύξ, "with the fist") and the related pygmḗ ("fist, a measure of length" — the distance from elbow to knuckle) gave English pygmy (originally a race of fist-sized people in Greek mythology).
English poke (ME poken, possibly from MLG or MDu — to thrust, to prod) may continue the root through the Germanic branch.
The root's most consequential modern descendant is probably punctuation — the system of dots, commas, and marks that structure written language. Every period, comma, and semicolon is etymologically a prick-mark — a tiny stab in the surface of the text that tells the reader where to pause, stop, or breathe.