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pudir

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Etymology and origin of the Catalan word pudir

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1271 Ramon Llull's Llibre de contemplació More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin *putio via Old Catalan
Ultimate origin
Latin pūteō

Pronunciation

  • Balearic, Central, Northern, Northwestern: [puˈði][1]
  • Valencia: [puˈðiɾ][1]

Forms

pudir (first-person singular present pudo, first-person singular preterite pudí, past participle pudit)[1] The present has the short forms puts and put in the second and third persons singular.[2][3] A variant púder is heard in parts of Roussillon.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan pudir, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pūtiō, a form of pūteō (“to stink, be rotten”) moved to another conjugation.[1] The DCVB, the GDLC and Coromines derive it directly from the classical verb.[5][3][4]

The Latin verb survives in most Romance languages: Romanian puți, French puer, Occitan pudir, Italian putire and Sardinian pudire.[4][1] Coromines notes that only Spanish and Portuguese lost it, the Spanish word being replaced by heder.[4]

Wiktionary, after de Vaan, suggests that the Latin verb is based on a participle from *puH-, and compares the English word foul.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Llull's Llibre de contemplació the verb is already in its basic sense: men die, stink and rot under the earth.[6]

Semantic evolution

Coromines finds that the verb was used very early in figurative and moral senses.[4] Bernat Metge quotes the saying that whoever kisses two mouths must find one of them stinking, and Eiximenis writes that the thing that most offends God is pride.[7][4] In Joanot Martorell Tirant declares more than once that an honour offered to him does not displease him (no·m put).[4] The sense of being tired of something repeated has lasted to the present, especially in the countryside.[4]

Coromines stresses that the verb has stayed alive in every Catalan dialect, from the Pyrenees to Valencia and all the islands, and argues against replacing it with fer pudor.[4] Its derivatives are old: pudent is in Llull and in a Roussillon document of 1298, empudeir in Llull, while empudegar is recorded in the 20th century.[4][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1271 – Llull's Llibre de contemplació.[6]
  • 1298 – peixes pudentz in a Roussillon document.[4]
  • 1317 – a Roussillon regulation forbids fish that stinks (que·l peix no puda).[4]
  • 1381 – Bernat Metge's proverb of the two mouths.[7]
  • 1401 – the Recull d'eximplis.[7]
  • 1851 – Escrig records the verb in Valencian.[4]
  • 1932 – Fabra's dictionary, with the figurative senses.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive) To stink, give off a bad smell: Aquest formatge put molt.[2][3][1]
  2. pudir com una guilla: to stink badly.[2]
  3. pudir a: to smell of something; figuratively to smack of it, make one fear it: Tot plegat put a estafa.[2][3]
  4. pudir-li a algú: of something repeated or persistent, to annoy or sicken someone.[2][5][1]

Word family

  • pudent
  • pudor
  • pudós
  • empudeir
  • empudegar

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. pudir
  3. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. pudir
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 850
  5. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. pudir
  6. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. pudir
  7. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. pudir
  8. ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 760
  9. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. pudir

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pudir.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ca/pudir. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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