point-to-point

point-to-point

English

WOTD – 17 May 2021

Etymology

The chassis of a 1948 Motorola “Golden View” television set, showing complex point-to-point wiring (sense 1.1).

From point (“individual element in a larger whole; specific location or place; topic of discussion or debate”) + to + point.[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpɔɪnt(t)əˈpɔɪnt/

Adjective

point-to-point (not comparable)

1. Travelling directly from a starting point to an ending point, or from one point to another in a series of points without passing through any intermediate points.
   1. (electronics) Being or relating to a method of manually constructing electronic circuits prior to automation and printed circuit boards, where components were individually mounted on the chassis prior to soldering.
   2. (telecommunications) Employing a simple network topology with a dedicated link between two endpoints.
   3. (transport) Travelling directly from source to destination without passing through a hub.
      • 1961 April, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, ISSN 0141-9935, OCLC 35845948, page 210:

        In the interests of evening out the demand on locomotive power throughout the run, some adjustment of point-to-point timings might be worth while, especially an easing of the timing from Darlington to York.

2. Having every aspect or point of something matching up with corresponding aspects or points of something else.

   a point-to-point rebuttal of the argument

Translations

travelling directly from a starting point to an ending point, or from one point to another in a series of points without passing through any intermediate points

being or relating to a method of manually constructing electronic circuits where components were individually mounted on the chassis prior to soldering

Dutch: punt-naar-punt Italian: punto a punto

employing a simple network topology with a dedicated link between two endpoints

Catalan: punt a punt Czech: dvoubodový French: point à point (fr) Japanese: ポイント・ツー・ポイント Russian: точка-точка (točka-točka) Spanish: punto a punto Swedish: punkt-till-punkt

travelling directly from source to destination without passing through a hub

having every aspect or point of something matching up with corresponding aspects or points of something else

See also

• end-to-end
• hub-and-spoke
• peer-to-peer

Noun

Riders taking part in a point-to-point horse race.

point-to-point (plural point-to-points)

1. (horse racing, also attributively) A kind of horse race involving a direct cross-country course with obstacles for hunting horses and amateur riders.

Derived terms

• point-to-pointer
• point-to-pointing

Translations

kind of horse race involving a direct cross-country course with obstacles

References

1. “point-to-point, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2018; “point-to-point, adj. and n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• point-to-point construction on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• point-to-point (steeplechase) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• point-to-point (telecommunications) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• point-to-point (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia