ppl. a. Obs. Also 6 compunt. [ad. L. compunct-us, pa. pple. of compung-ĕre to prick severely, to sting, f. com- intensive + pungĕre to prick.] ‘Pricked’ in heart or conscience by consciousness of wrong-doing; affected with compunction. (Usually construed as a pple.)
1382. Wyclif, Acts ii. 37. These thingis herd, thei weren compunct in herte.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxxii. 146. He … was gretely compuncte and went fra þam and did þam na disese.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 59. With herte contryte, compuncte, and sorowfull.
1538. Prymer, K viij b. David compunt and stryken with herty repentaunce.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Acts ii. 37. Hearing these things they were compuncte in harte.
1659. W. Brough, Sacr. Princ., 473. To be compunct and not confess is to bleed inwardly.
¶ In the Wyclifite version, to be compunct renders the Lat. passive compungi, Gr. κατανύσσεσθαι, in certain passages, where the Heb. has forms of dāmam to be dumb or silent. So in Hampole’s Comm. on Psalms.
1388. Wyclif, Ps. iv. 5. For the thingis whiche ȝe seien in ȝoure hertis, and in ȝoure beddis, be ȝe compunct [[Hebrew], κατανύγητε, compungimini; 1382 haue ȝee compunccioun; Hampole, Þat ȝe say in ȝoure hertis and in ȝoure dennes ere stungen; Coverdale, remembre youre selues; Douay be sorie for; Geneva and 1611 be still]. Ibid., Ps. xxix (xxx). 13: xxxiv (xxxv). 16.
c. 1430. trans. T. à Kempis’ Imit., I. xx. As it is writen, ‘Be ye compuncte in your pryue couches.’
