By Jason Snell

December 28, 2022 10:28 AM PT

You’re going to have to pungle up

I left an easter egg in this week’s Macworld column:

People who want the most cutting-edge iPhones will need to pungle up for the privilege. And guess what? A whole lot of people will.

The first time I came into contact with the phrase “pungle up,” I knew what it meant—it was clearly used in the same way as a phrase I was familiar with, “pony up.” It means that you’re going to have to put your hard-earned money on the table, that whatever you’re getting is going to come dear.

My introduction to “pungle up” came from Chris Breen, who was a freelance writer at MacUser and Macworld—later, I hired him full time as a writer at Macworld. Chris used it a lot.

As he explained today:

“Pungle” was a word that was thrown about freely when I was growing up, so I was surprised when editors questioned me about its use. I believe Macworld’s copy editors added it to the style guide so future editors wouldn’t query me about it.

True story. And my use of the term on Macworld this week is absolutely intended as an homage to Chris. (Chris works inside at Apple these days, though he does blog occasionally on non-tech topics and is the author of the theme songs for many, many podcasts.)

Anyway, it’s in the dictionary and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Macworld style guide, and that’s good enough for me.

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