podre

Forms

podre f (plural podres)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin puter (“rotten, putrid”), an adjective that Spanish turned into a noun.^[2][3][1] Wiktionary names the accusative form, and the DLE and Corominas the variant putris.^[1][2][3] The REW gives the Spanish word the sense “pus”, beside Portuguese podre “mouldy, rotten”, Sardinian pudre “rotten” and Occitan puire in southern France.^[4] García de Diego records the old adjectival sense “rotten” in Galician, Asturian and the Spanish of Segovia, and the form pudre in Murcia.^[5] Asturian podre and Galician podre are still adjectives meaning “rotten”.^[6][7]

The Latin adjective goes back to a stem Proto-Italic *putri- “rotten”, from Proto-Indo-European *puH- “rotten, foul”, the root also of pūs (“pus”) and pūteō (“to rot, stink”).^[8][1] De Vaan compares Old Irish othar (“sickness”) and Greek words for pus.^[8]

Older Spanish dictionaries explained the word differently: the Diccionario de Autoridades derived it from the Latin word for pus, and the Academy's editions of 1884 and 1899 from podrido.^[9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's first record is in the Libro de Alexandre (1230–1250).^[12] In the Bocados de oro (before 1250, in a 15th-century copy) it is the rotting matter of the dead body that the worms suck: chupan lo gusanos la podre del tu cuerpo.^[13] Corominas dates the word to about 1335, the Conde Lucanor, where the water in which a leper was washed is llena de podre “full of pus”.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word was still used as an adjective: a will of 1297 speaks of pan podre “rotten bread”.^[13] The noun meant the corrupt matter of a wound or of anything decaying;^[14][15] Nebrija gave it the Latin equivalents pus and tabes, and Percyvall in 1591 translated it as “rotten filth, corruption”.^[14][15] Covarrubias described it as rotten blood and humour.^[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it in 1737 as the corrupt blood or matter that a wound discharges, quoting the Conde Lucanor and Ribadeneyra.^[9]

From 1869 to 1899 the Academy marked the noun as of either gender and defined it simply as pus.^[17][10][11] The modern dictionaries give “putrefaction” and “pus”;^[2][18][19] Vox labels both senses formal.^[2][18][19] In Mexico City in 1571 it was glossed with Nahuatl temalli.^[20] In Asturian and Leonese the adjective “rotten” survives.^[6][21]

Timeline

• 1230–1250 – first record, in the Libro de Alexandre.^[12]
• before 1250 – the Bocados de oro (in a 15th-century copy) uses it for the rotting matter of a corpse.^[13]
• 1297 – a will has the adjective in pan podre “rotten bread”.^[13]
• 1325–1335 – the Conde Lucanor uses it for the pus of a leper's sores;^[13][3] Corominas's date of first record.^[13][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin pus and tabes as its equivalents.^[14]
• 1571 – recorded in Mexico City beside Nahuatl temalli.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as rotten blood and humour.^[16]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it and derives it from Latin pus.^[9]
• 1869 – the Academy marks it as a noun of either gender.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. putrefaction: the rotting of something.^[2][1]
2. pus, the matter of a sore or wound.^[2][18]

Related words

• pudrir
• podrido
• podredumbre
• pútrido
• pus
• Latin puter
• Portuguese podre

Usage notes

The word is feminine today (la podre); the Academy's editions of 1869 to 1899 called it ambiguous in gender, and Ramos y Duarte records el podre in Veracruz.^{[2][17][11][22]} In medieval texts the same spelling podre is also the future podré “I shall be able” of poder, which accounts for most of the CDH's early hits.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. podre
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pudrir
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 309
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. podre
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. podre
14. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 398
15. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins
16. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1220
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
20. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
21. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. podre
22. ^ Ramos y Duarte, Félix (1895), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Imprenta de Eduardo Dublán, p. 409