["punt" - Word of the Day from the OED]

[Victor Steinbok]

More follow up on OED WOTD:

*verb PUNT*

This seems to be the meaning I want to expand upon a bit.
>
>     *4.* /N. Amer. colloq./
>
>     *a.* /intr./ To give up, back out; to defer or avoid taking action
or responsibility, to 'pass the buck'.
>  *1966* /Chicago Tribune/ 10 Nov. (North Neighborhood News section) 3A
1/4 I've never been a fashion commentator before so I'll punt. *1972*
/N.Y. Times/ 16 Apr. 42/3 When Jerry saw that he was not going to run
things, he punted. *1982* /Christian Sci. Monitor/ (Nexis) 12 Aug., The
board doesn't really seem to know how to handle the de-icing problem and
has punted on a major issue that could have strong bearing on protecting
passengers next winter. *2002* /Yahoo! Internet Life/ Feb. 100/2
Sometimes it's easier to punt and assign the whole damn problem to a
computer.
>
>     *b.* /trans./ To avoid, defer, or give up on. Also: to pass
responsibility for (something) /to/.
>  *1969* /Cook County/ (Illinois) /Herald/ 21 May 2/6 So the board
decided to punt the matter over to Dist. 54. *1972* /Odessa/ (Texas)
/Amer./ 10 Sept. 16/3 What is your favorite football play?.. I think
I'll punt that question. *1983* G. STEELE et al. /Hacker's Dict./ 106
Let's punt the movie tonight. *2005* L. LEFF /Buried by Times/ viii. 258
A divided State Department punted the issue to Treasury.

What seems to be missing here is the combination "punt on", as in "I
think, I'll punt on that!", meaning "I will skip that." (similar to 4b
above) The situation is very basic and fairly common. Tracking it down
is a bit difficult because there is a lot of interference from football,
rugby, boats (punts), etc. But, doing a slightly restricted search on
"punt on that", specifically, and eliminating most of the football
terms, still gets 41 Google Books hits from 1950-2009 (no hits of any
kind on this combination prior to 1969). Ignoring a handful of
suspiciously meta-tagged items, the common use appears to date from at
least 1993 forward, although some go back to 1977 (not sure of dates,
but the usage is the same). In particular, an oddly large number of
entries appear to come from transcripts of US congressional committee
hearings (including a number of possibly mistagged items):

>  Mr. Bingham, if you will permit me, I will punt on that and insert
something in the record.
Hearings, reports and prints of the House Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs, 1978

>  You also have been in the legislative process. You know that sometimes
in that process we like to do what is easy. Sometimes we will *punt on
that* which is difficult.
House Committee on Energy and Commerce, (supposedly) 2001

>  ... but it seems to us they are both trying to achieve exactly the
same purpose and I am afraid I would like *to punt on that one* until we
get the Attorney General up here.
H.R. 6588, the National Intelligence Act of 1980: hearings before the
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on
Legislation

>  I do not want you *to punt on that one*. Did you feel like that would
have been your responsibility at the local level to take care of these
folks?
House Committee on Government Reform, 2006

There are 34 hits on "punt on this" in the same timeframe (although
there is some noise as well).

>  ... US Government's approach to the White Paper: "The easiest thing
for us would be if we *could punt on this*."
Milton L. Mueller, Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming
of Cyberspace, 2004, Page 291

>  During the 1980s, the parties *could punt on this question* simply by
running large deficits: the Republicans got the tax cuts and defense
spending they preferred, while Democrats got the social spending they
preferred.
Steven E. Schier, The postmodern presidency: Bill Clinton's legacy in
U.S. politics, 2000, Page 161

>  So why did Wagner take real action and *not just punt on this
important issue*? Did Robert Wagner personally support preservation?
Anthony C. Wood, Preserving New York: winning the right to protect a
city's landmarks, 2007, Page 361

Similarly, it creeps up in "punt on it", although there is more noise
here (out of only 22 hits):

>  Because there's not yet any standard way of solving this problem, I'm
going *to punt on it* for now and use HTTP Basic authentication for my
services.
Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby, RESTful web services, 2007, Page 147

In fact, there is a variation of "to take a punt on it" (possibly
Australian, although might be US use as well--obviously punt is not a
verb here):

>  To be honest, risk taking is not what it once was in Hollywood--that
is for sure. But I think the independent divisions of studios and
independent film companies are probably more willing to hear a pitch
like /The Crying Game/ or more willing *to take a punt on it* than major
studios.
Julie MacLusky, Is there life after film school? 2003, Page 132

>  If Robyn Williams were a betting man he could *take a punt on it*.
Donald Horne, The Coming republic, 1992, Page 78

>  "You could say that Qantas has taken a bit of a punt on this
decision", says Yates, "but we had monitored the performance well with
British Airways.
International Aeronautic Federation: Interavia: world review of
aviation, astronautics, avionics, 1980, Page 934

I'll let someone else track down the earliest use, once it is determined
that it's a legitimate entry. The earliest "take a punt on X" that I
recorded appears to be from 1980. The earliest appearance of "to punt on
X" is tagged 1977, with several tagged 1978, although, since these are
government reports (i.e., periodicals), I cannot vouch for authenticity
of the tags. I can vouch for that expression from early/mid 1980s
geek-speak (MIT), but that's not going to get me very far.

    VS-)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org