puta

Forms

puta f (plural putas)^[1] Euphemistic deformations include pucha, above all in exclamations such as ¡la pucha! and hi de pucha, the latter already in Lucas Fernández about 1500.^[2][3] The longer form putaña appears in Berceo, and putanero in a 13th-century Bible manuscript.^[2]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4] Corominas considers it most probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *pūtta (“girl”), the feminine of *pūttus, a variant of Latin putus (“boy”).^[2][3] Wiktionary, Moliner and the DLE (under puto) follow the same explanation.^[2][1][5][6] Diez, Meyer-Lübke and others had proposed the Latin word for “boy”, while Förster, Gamillscheg and Bloch preferred pūtida, the feminine of pūtidus (“stinking”).^[2] García de Diego and Bénaben follow the second view.^[2][7][8]

Corominas finds both explanations acceptable in meaning: a word for “girl” has turned pejorative in many languages, and Old French put “stinking” came to mean “bad” in general.^[2] Against the second he argues that Castilian and Portuguese could not reduce it to this form, since the word would have developed as pudio did; a loan from French is unlikely for so old and general a word without a native rival.^[2] In favour of the first he sets the close link with Italian putta “girl”, a word still used in Lombard and Venetian dialects for children and young people.^[2][9] De Vaan notes that the Latin word for “boy” is only a conjecture in Virgil, and that Romance points to a Vulgar Latin form with a geminate.^[10][1]

The same word is Portuguese puta, Galician puta, Asturian puta, Catalan puta and Occitan puta.^[2][1] French putain, Occitan putan and Italian puttana are a longer form, from the old feminine declension of the type ⟨Berte⟩, ⟨Bertain⟩.^[2] Old Catalan putana and Old Spanish putaña were probably taken from Gallo-Romance.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the 13th century, in the Escorial Bible manuscript I-j-8, where it translates Latin meretrix and, in the phrase „non tomará muger puta”, scortum.^[2][3] DEMel records it earlier in the Fuero de Madrid (1158–1202) and in the Fuero de Plasencia (1221).^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word appears in the glossaries of the Escorial and of Toledo and in the Cancionero de Baena.^[2] Nebrija (1495) lists several kinds, puta del burdel, puta barvacanera and puta carcavera.^[2] From the 15th century it is very common in literature, though decent conversation avoided it, and the effort to avoid it produced euphemisms such as pucha.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) derived it from pútida “stinking”, as Autoridades reports, which also quotes the Partidas on the child de muger puta.^[12][13] The Academy's 1899 edition derived it from Latin puta “girl”.^[14]

In modern colloquial Spanish it is also an insult for a promiscuous woman.^[1][5] In Chile puta is the knave of the playing cards, and in the nitrate works a small shovel.^[15] In Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Peru ¡puta! is a vulgar exclamation of anger or surprise.^[1] The word passed into Tagalog and Cebuano.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Escorial Bible manuscript I-j-8 uses puta for Latin meretrix.^[2][3]
• c. 1230–1250 – Berceo has the longer form putaña.^[2]
• mid-15th century – first record of the masculine puto, in the Coplas del Provincial.^[2][3]
• c. 1500 – first record of the euphemism pucha, in Lucas Fernández.^[2][3]
• 1566 – first record in the Americas, in Yucatán.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from pútida “stinking”.^[12]
• 1613 – first record of putesco, in Cervantes.^[2][3]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from Latin puta “girl”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (vulgar, offensive) Prostitute, whore.^[6][4][1]
2. (vulgar, offensive) A woman regarded as promiscuous.^[5][1]
3. (Chile) The knave of the Spanish playing cards.^[15]

Interjection

1. (Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, vulgar) An exclamation of anger, frustration or surprise.^[1][17]

Word family

• putero
• putesco
• chuloputas
• hijoputa
• putada
• putañear
• putear
• puterío
• puto
• putona

Related words

• pucha
• Portuguese puta
• Italian putta

Usage notes

Polite conversation has long avoided the word.^[2] It forms many vulgar phrases, such as hijo de puta, de puta madre “great, terrific” and pasarlas putas “to have a very hard time”.^[6][1] The masculine puto means “male prostitute” and “sodomite”, and before a noun puto, puta is a vulgar intensifier: la puta calle.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 700
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puta
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. puta
5. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puto
6. ^ a b c d 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. puto
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5305
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. puta
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 10, 40
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. puta
12. ^ 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. 1238
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 442
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 828
15. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 536
16. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. puta
17. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. puta