putative

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French putatif and directly borrowed from Late Latin putātīvus (“supposed”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed with the suffix -īvus on the past participial stem of Latin putō (“to think, suppose; originally, to clean, trim, prune”).^[2][7][8][9] The American Heritage Dictionary gives the route as Old French putatif,^[10] while Etymonline, Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged name only the Latin.^[7][11][12] The verb is traced to Proto-Indo-European *pau- (“to cut, strike, stamp”),^[7][10] and Klein thinks it probably related to puteus (“well, pit”), literally a hole cut, and paviō (“to beat, ram, tread down”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Reputed, supposed: before 1460, in O. Bokenham's Lives of Saints, according to the revised OED.^[2] Barnhart finds it probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[3] and Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century, at first especially in putative marriage.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb had moved from cleaning and pruning to reckoning and judging,^[7][9] Skeat explaining it as making clean, making clear and so coming to a clear result,^[13] and Klein comparing the way Latin caedō (“to cut, lop”) gave dēcīdō (“to cut off; to decide”).^[9] The adjective meant "imaginary, unreal" in Tertullian, and "supposed" in the phrase pater putativus from the 12th century.^[2] English used it mostly in law at first:^[7] a putative marriage is legally invalid but was entered in good faith by at least one party,^[7][4] and a putative father is the man held to be the father of an illegitimate child.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "supposed; reputed", quoting Ayliffe on a wife who is "only a putative, and not a true and real wife".^[14] The OED's single sense runs from the reputed to the postulated, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins separate what is commonly accepted from what is assumed or inferred to exist.^[2][12][11]

Timeline

• late 2nd or early 3rd century – Late Latin putātīvus (“imaginary, unreal”), in Tertullian.^[2]
• 12th century – the sense "supposed", in pater putativus.^[2]
• late 14th century – Middle French putatif, in the plural filz putatis.^[2]
• before 1460 – reputed, supposed; also imagined, hypothetical.^[2] Barnhart finds it probably before 1425.^[3]
• early 18th century – adverb putatively.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Commonly taken to be such; reputed or supposed: the putative author of the pamphlet.^[11][12][2]
2. Assumed to exist or to have existed; inferred or hypothetical: a putative link between the two events.^[11][12][2]
3. (grammar) Of a verb mood in some languages, used when speakers assert what they have inferred and have no direct evidence for.^[11]
4. (law) In putative father, the man held to be the father of an illegitimate child, and putative marriage, a marriage that is legally invalid but was made in good faith by at least one party.^[4][7]

Word family

• putatively
• putative marriage
• putativeness
• putative father

Related words

• dispute
• disrepute
• impute
• repute
• compute
• count
• deputy
• amputate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.