Meaning

noun 14th President of the United States (1804-1869)

verb cut or make a way through

verb move or affect (a person's emotions or bodily feelings) deeply or sharply

originFrom Middle English perce, from conjugated forms of Old French percier such as (jeo) pierce (“I pierce”), probably from Vulgar Latin *pertūsiō, from Latin pertūsus, past participle of pertundō (“thrust or bore through”), from per- (“through”) + tundō (“beat, pound”). Displaced native Old English þȳrlian (literally “to hole”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0