put

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pʊt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English putten, puten (“to thrust, push; to place”),^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English *putian (“to thrust, push”), a verb implied only by the verbal noun putung (“instigation, urging”) (about 1050).^[2][3][5] Parallel Old English forms are potian (“to push”) and pȳtan (“to put out, thrust out”).^[2][6][5] The American Heritage Dictionary instead derives putten as a back-formation from an Old English past tense *pūtte of pȳtan.^[7] The related words in other Germanic languages include Middle Dutch poten (“to plant”), Dutch poten (“to plant”), Old Norse pota (“to poke”) and Danish putte (“to put”);^[2][3][8] Klein takes the original sense of all of them to be “to push, thrust”.^[8] The ultimate origin is unknown;^[5][6][9] Partridge suggests it may be echoic,^[10] and Weekley that it is probably related to butt and French bouter (“to thrust, push”).^[11] Johnson remarked that for so common a word it was very difficult to find the etymology.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To thrust, push, shove; to move or place (probably before 1200, in Ancrene Riwle and Layamon's Brut).^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The original sense “to thrust, push” is now obsolete except in Scottish and northern dialect, of butting with the head or horns,^[3][5] and in phrases such as put the shot, put a horse at a fence and put a knife into someone;^[11] the golf verb putt is the same word with a differentiated spelling and pronunciation.^[11][13] From about 1300 put meant “to hurl, cast”, especially a heavy stone overhand.^[3][14] By the mid-14th century it also meant “to bring someone into a condition” and “to express in speech or writing”;^[3] put to death dates from about 1400 and put to shame from the mid-15th century.^[3] The sense “to express in a particular way” (to put it bluntly) is from 1571 in the Historical Thesaurus,^[15] and the nautical intransitive use “to proceed, head” (put to sea) from 1578.^[15] Put up with, “to tolerate”, was earlier put up, in the sense “to pocket” an insult.^[11][3] The past tense putted was used in the 14th and 15th centuries and survives in Scottish.^[3][5] The adjective put, as in stay put, dates from 1841.^[16][4] The noun “an option to sell stock at a fixed price” is recorded from 1717.^[2][13] An unrelated noun put, “a fool, a bumpkin”, is cant of 1688.^[13][17][5]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Old English putung, urging.^[2]
• c. 1200 – putten, to thrust, push, place.^[2]
• c. 1300 – to throw a heavy stone; noun, a throw.^[3][14]
• mid-14th century – to bring into a condition; to express.^[3]
• c. 1400 – put to death.^[3]
• 1571 – to express in a particular way.^[15]
• 1578 – of a ship, to head in a direction.^[15]
• 1621 – put-on, pretended.^[9]
• 1688 – put, a stupid fellow (cant).^[13][17]
• 1717 – an option to sell stock.^[2][13]
• 1841 – adjective, fixed in place.^[16]
• 1962 – put-down, a slight.^[9]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To place in a particular position; to set or lay.
2. To bring into a particular state or condition: put me at ease.
3. To subject to something: put to death.
4. To assign or attribute: put the blame on.
5. To estimate: put the time at five o'clock.
6. To express or state; to translate: to put it bluntly, put into English.
7. To bring forward for consideration: put a question.
8. To impose (a tax); to stake (money) on something.
9. To throw (a heavy weight) with an overhand pushing motion: put the shot.
10. (nautical) To proceed in a given direction: put to sea.

Noun

1. A throw of the shot.
2. (finance) An option to sell a set amount of stock or a commodity at a fixed price within a set time.
3. (archaic) A stupid person; a bumpkin.

Adjective

1. Fixed in place: stay put.

Related words

• putt
• putter
• input
• output
• butt
• pother

Usage notes

Random House distinguishes put, the general word for bringing an object to a place, from place, which suggests precision;^[18] lay and set originally meant “to cause to lie” and “to cause to sit”.^[18] Most senses of the verb need an adverbial to complete them: one puts a book on the table, not simply puts a book.^[19]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
15. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
19. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org