pourrir

Forms

pourrir^[1] Old French purir (about 1050), porrir (about 1155), and pourrir from the second half of the 13th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French porrir, inherited from Vulgar Latin *putriō, an alteration of Classical Latin putrēscō (“to become rotten”) and the rarer putreō (“to be rotten”).^[5][2][6][7] These come from the adjective puter (“rotten, decaying”), which is related to pūteō (“to stink”), the source of puer.^[2] Littré notes that the inchoative Latin verb would itself have given a form like ⟨pouraître⟩, and that the French verb took the inflection of the verbs in ⟨-ir⟩ that continue Latin verbs in ⟨-ēscere⟩.^[8]

Cognate with Occitan poirir, Catalan pudrir, Spanish pudrir and Portuguese apodrecer.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050), of a dead body: Ço peiset mai que purirat [en] terre, “it grieves me that it will rot in the earth”.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb has been used both with and without an object from the beginning, for slow and steady decay: of a corpse, of plants and wood (1160–1174), of the body or a part of it eaten by disease (about 1200), and of all kinds of matter.^[2][5] The proverb le poisson pourrit par la tête gave in the 1950s the figurative pourrir par la tête, said of a society that decays from the top.^[2]

Morally it meant “to become corrupt” of a person (about 1165) and “to perish” of a feeling (1176).^[2][5] From about 1245 it was said of someone left to languish in a degrading state, especially in prison (laisser pourrir, before 1421), a use still alive.^[2][5] Transitively it meant “to coddle” (about 1180), a sense revived in pourrir un enfant “to spoil a child” (1878), and “to corrupt” (13th century).^[2][5] The participle pourri is said of wet, sunless weather from 1747.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Purirat “will rot” appears in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[5]
• c. 1155 – The form porrir is used by Wace.^[2][4]
• 1160–1174 – Wace uses it of rotting wood.^[5]
• c. 1165 – It is used of a person who becomes morally corrupt.^[5][2]
• c. 1180 – The Proverbe au vilain uses it for “to coddle”.^[5]
• c. 1245 – Philippe Mousket uses it for languishing in prison.^[5]
• c. 1265 – The form pourrir appears in Jean de Meun.^[3][4]
• Before 1421 – Laisser pourrir en prison is recorded.^[5][2]
• 1747 – Piron writes of tems pourry, rotten weather.^[5][2]
• 1878 – The Académie records pourrir un enfant de caresses.^[5]
• 1950s – The figurative pourrir par la tête appears.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also reflexive) To rot, to decay, to putrefy (of organic matter): les pommes pourrissent dans l'herbe.^[5][10][1]
2. (intransitive) To waste away from a disease such as gangrene.^[1][5]
3. (intransitive, figurative) To languish in a degrading situation: ils l'ont laissé pourrir en prison.^[10][2]
4. (intransitive, figurative) (of a situation) To deteriorate when left alone: laisser pourrir un conflit.^[10]
5. (transitive) To make rot, to cause to decay.^[5][10]
6. (transitive, figurative) To corrupt morally.^[5][2]
7. (transitive, familiar) To spoil a child by over-indulgence.^[2][5]

Word family

• pourriture

Related words

• pourri
• putréfaction
• putréfier
• puer
• Latin puter

Usage notes

The proverb le poisson pourrit par la tête “the fish rots from the head” is said of a group corrupted first through its leaders.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 639b
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert