Poignant means touching in a way that makes you sad. A poignant moment, poignant reminder, deeply poignant.
The sadness is gentle and the effect is sharp, which is the odd combination the word captures — a poignant scene stings rather than devastates. It is pronounced POYN-yant. Note that poignant and pungent are the same Latin word meaning pricking, one arriving through French, which is why both describe something sharp.
1adjectivepoignantTouching in a way that makes you sad.
“The film's final scene, where the old man reads his late wife's letters, is very poignant.”
synonyms: moving, touching
poignant is a quality of touching sadness.
Old French poignant is the present participle of poindre, to prick, from Latin pungere. Pungent, punch and point come from the same pricking.
Proto-Indo-European
*pewǵ-
Latin
pungō — prick
Anglo-Norman
puignant
Middle English
poynaunt
English, today
poignant
Built from
From Middle English poynaunt, poynant, borrowed from Anglo-Norman puignant, poynaunt etc., present participle of poindre (“to prick”), from Latin pungō (“prick”). a doublet of pungent.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA