πύον

Forms

πῠ́ον (púon) n (genitive πῠ́ου); second declension^[1] Also πύος (púos), a neuter s-stem, in the Hippocratic writings and a 4th-century BC inscription from Epidaurus; plural πύα.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a noun of the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“to rot”), made directly from the root, without the ⟨θ⟩ extension of the verb πύθομαι (púthomai, “to rot”).^[4][3][5] Its closest matches outside Greek are Old Armenian հու (hu, “festering blood”) and Latin pūs (“pus”), which continues *puH-os.^[4][6]

The same root gives the verbs Sanskrit पूयति (pū́yati, “rots”) and Lithuanian pū́ti (“to rot”), and the adjectives Latin puter (“rotten”) and Gothic 𐍆𐌿𐌻𐍃 (fūls, “foul”).^[4][5][6] Sanskrit पूय (pū́ya-, “pus”) looks like an exact match, but Beekes takes it as a back-formation from the verb, and so not the same word as πύον.^[4] He also puts here πυός (pūós, “beestings”), the first milk after calving.^[4] Babiniotis suggests that the root may in the end imitate a cry of disgust.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Hippocratic writings of the 5th century BC, for the pus that comes from sores, wounds and abscesses.^[2][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to medicine from the start, and the Hippocratic doctors built a family on it: ἔμπυος (émpuos, “full of pus”), verbs such as διαπυέω (diapuéō) and ἐκπυέω (ekpuéō) “to suppurate”, and presents in -ίσκομαι that mark the onset of suppuration.^[4][3] Aristotle used it in his biological works, and later medical writers such as Aretaeus and Galen kept it.^[2][3] A fragment of Empedocles has a form that LSJ reads as πυός (pūós) “beestings”.^[2] Outside medicine it is rare: the Apocalypse of Peter uses it in its visions of punishment.^[10]

Modern Greek keeps πύον (pýon) as a learned word for “pus”, with compounds such as πυόρροια (pyórroia).^[11][7][3] English forms medical words with the element pyo-, taken from it in the mid-19th century.^[12]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings use it for the matter of sores and abscesses.^[2][8][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it in his Generation of Animals, and an inscription from Epidaurus has the variant πύος (púos).^[2][3][9]
• 2nd century AD – Aretaeus and Galen use it in their medical writings.^[2][3][9]
• Mid-19th century – English begins to form learned words with pyo- from it.^[12]
• Modern Greek – πύον (pýon) is a learned word for “pus”.^[11][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Pus, the matter discharged from a sore or abscess.^[2][10][3]

Word family

• ἔμπυος (émpuos)
• ἐμπυέω (empuéō)
• διαπυέω (diapuéō)
• ἐκπυέω (ekpuéō)
• πύησις (púēsis)
• σαρκόπυον (sarkópuon)

Related words

• πύθομαι (púthomai)
• πυός (pūós)
• Latin pus
• English pyo-

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ a b Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com