puño

Puño is a Spanish noun with several related meanings. Most commonly, it designates the closed hand or fist, the part of the body used to strike or to grip with force. In everyday language, expressions such as cerrar el puño (to clench the fist) or apretar los puños (to tighten one’s fists) are typical.

The term also refers to the grip or handle of an object designed to be held. This use covers tools, utensils, and sometimes parts of equipment or weapons, where the user holds the “puño” to operate or control the item. In this sense, puño is closely related to notions of grip and usability.

Puño is also used in clothing to denote the cuff of a sleeve, the fabric end that fits around the wrist. Puños can be plain or decorative and are common features on shirts, sweaters, and jackets.

In addition, puño can appear in expressions and measurements. For example, a small quantity can be described as un puño de something, though more common terms like un puñado or unos pocos are often used depending on dialect.

Etymology traces puño to Latin pugnus, meaning fist, passing into Old Spanish and evolving through the centuries. Today it retains these core senses while expanding to describe handles, cuffs, and related notions of grip and physical action. The term appears across Spanish-speaking regions with minimal variation in core meaning, though usage may differ in informal speech.