Etymologically
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rot

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Pronunciation

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

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