rot

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English roten, inherited from Old English rotian (“to rot, putrefy”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} also gerotian,^[3][2] from Proto-Germanic *rutāną,^[1] which Etymonline and Ayto give as *rutjan.^[5][7] It is cognate with Old Frisian rotia, Old Saxon rotōn, Middle Dutch roten, Dutch rotten and Old High German rozzēn,^[3][8][5][9] and, with a different suffix, Old Norse rotna.^[3][8] Barnhart describes it as a weak verb formed on the Germanic stem *rut-, found also in rotinn, the source of rotten,^[8][7] and the OED takes it as a zero-grade derivative of the strong verb behind that participle.^[3] Barnhart traces the stem to Proto-Indo-European *reud-, which seems to have meant to wet or soak;^[8] Merriam-Webster relates it to Latin rudus (“rubble”), and Ayto, more cautiously, to rudis (“rough”), the source of rude.^[10][7] The noun probably comes from the verb,^[3][5][9] though several dictionaries take it from Scandinavian,^[10][11][12] comparing Icelandic rot, Norwegian rot and Danish råd.^[11][13][12] The Gersum Project finds a native formation from the verb the most likely, since the Scandinavian nouns are recorded late, and notes that Old English hrot (“scum, mucus”) may have contributed to some senses.^[13][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To decay, decompose: before 899, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care,^[8][3] of a wound that festers: hió wyrmseþ and rotaþ.^[6] The OED also has Old English uses of dead flesh and bones and of plants and timber.^[3]

Semantic evolution

By about 1200 the verb was used of moral decay and decline,^[5][3] and since 1340 of a person wasting away, especially in prison.^[3][5] The transitive sense "to cause to rot" is recorded from about 1400, in Chaucer's Cook's Tale,^[3][5] and before 1400 it was also used of retting flax.^[3] From about 1500 it was used of sheep catching the rot,^[3] and since 1594, in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, in curses;^[3] dialects kept oaths such as Dod rot it,^[14] and Ayto takes drat as a blend of God and rot.^[7] In North America it has been said of river or sea ice thawing since 1818.^[3] The noun meant decay and putrefaction from the 14th century (before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi for Barnhart, early 14th century in Etymonline, about 1384 in the OED),^[8][5][3] and since about 1400 the liver-fluke disease of sheep.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) gave the sheep disease as its first sense.^[15] Later came decay in timber (1663) and plant diseases (1693).^[3] The slang sense "nonsense" is first recorded in 1846 in Punch (1848 in Etymonline),^[3][5] and talk rot appears in Tom Brown's School-Days (1857);^[16] Weekley thought the slang rot and rotter started at Cambridge.^[17] In cricket the rot sets in was said of a collapse of wickets from 1868, and of any decline from 1906.^[3]

Timeline

• before 899 – verb, to decay, of a wound.^[8][3]
• c. 1225 – to decline, decay morally.^[3]
• before 1325 – noun, decay (c. 1384 in the OED).^[8][3]
• 1340 – of a person, to waste away.^[3]
• c. 1405 – transitive, to cause to rot.^[3]
• c. 1425 – noun, the rot in sheep.^[3]
• 1594 – in curses.^[3]
• 1663 – decay in timber.^[3]
• 1846 – slang, nonsense.^[3]
• 1868 – the rot sets in, in cricket.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To decay or decompose through the action of bacteria or fungi: The fallen pears rotted in the grass.
2. To cause to decay: Years of damp had rotted the window frames.
3. To waste away or languish, as in prison: He was left to rot in a cell for years.
4. To decline or become corrupt morally.

Noun

1. The process of rotting, or rotten matter; putrefaction.
2. Any of several diseases that cause decay in plants or animals, especially the liver fluke disease of sheep.
3. (informal) Nonsense: Don't talk rot.
4. the rot sets in: a sudden decline begins, at first of a cricket side losing wickets.

Word family

• dry-rot
• rotgut
• rotproof
• brown rot
• bitter rot
• black rot
• foot rot
• jungle rot

Related words

• rotten
• ret
• rude
• drat
• rotter
• tommyrot

Usage notes

A separate noun rot, a file of soldiers (from 1632), comes partly from Swedish and partly from Middle Low German and Dutch, ultimately from the Old French word that gave rout.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray