putrefaction

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English putrefaccioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French putrefaction, recorded before 1272 in Old French as putrefacion, and its source borrowed from Late Latin putrefactiō (“a rotting”), used from the 5th century and often from the 12th century in British sources.^{[5][4][6][7][8]} Some dictionaries name only the Latin,^[3][9][10] and Etymonline only the French.^[2] The Latin noun is formed from putrefactus, the past participle of Latin putrefaciō (“to make rotten”),^{[3][9][10][5]} from putreō (“to be rotten”) and faciō (“to make, do”).^[2][7] The second element goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”),^[2] and the Latin words for rottenness to Proto-Indo-European *pu- (“to rot, stink”), like pus.^[2] Compare Catalan putrefacció (1287), Italian putrefattione (before 1320) and Spanish putrefacción (before 1400).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being putrid, or the process of rotting: before 1400, in a translation of Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie,^[5] about 1400 in Etymonline.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Hoad say the 14th century.^[9][7]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English Dictionary already separates the rotting of organic matter, the decay of living tissue as in ulceration or of teeth, the alchemists' breaking down of a substance, and putrid matter itself.^[4] The alchemical use, for the disintegration or corrosion of inorganic substances, was current from the late 15th to the late 17th century according to the Shorter Oxford.^[6][5] A figurative sense of moral corruption or decline is recorded from before 1622.^[5][6] Johnson (1755) called it the state of growing rotten or the act of making rotten, and quoted Quincy's account of it as a kind of fermentation that destroys a body's natural form.^[11] The modern dictionaries define it in terms of the bacteria and fungi that do the work.^[9][6][5]

Timeline

• before 1400 – the process of rotting; rottenness.^[5][2]
• c. 1425 – rotten or putrid matter.^[5][2]
• 1471 – in alchemy, the disintegration of an inorganic substance, in Ripley's Compend of Alchemy, in a manuscript of before 1550.^[5]
• before 1622 – figuratively, moral corruption or decay.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The decomposition of organic matter, especially the breaking down of proteins by bacteria and fungi, which produces foul-smelling substances: Cold slows the putrefaction of a carcass.^[9][3][6][5]
2. Putrid matter, or the smell it gives off.^[3][5]
3. The state of being putrefied; corruption or decay, also in a moral sense.^[9][5][6]
4. (alchemy, obsolete) The chemical disintegration or corrosion of a substance.^[6][5]

Word family

• putrefactive

Related words

• putrescent
• putrefy
• putrid
• pus

References

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