Punch,
with his wife Judy and dog Toby, the chief characters in a popular comic puppet show, of Italian origin, the name being a contraction of Punchinello, for Pulcinello, the droll clown in Neapolitan comedy. The exhibition soon found its way to other countries.
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Punch, or the London Charivari,
the chief of English comic journals, a weekly magazine of wit, humor, and satire in prose and verse, illustrated by sketches, caricatures, and emblematic devices. It was founded in 1841, the first number appearing July 17 of that year, and, under the joint editorship of Henry Mayhew and Mark Lemon, soon became a household word, while ere long its satirical cuts and witty rhymes were admitted a power in the land. "Punch" is recognized as an English institution.
Entries from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.