cutis

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkʊ.tɪs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkuː.tis]^[1]

Forms

cutis f (genitive cutis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kuti-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kHu-t-i- (“skin, hide”), an i-stem built on a t-stem.^[2] It matches the Germanic words, such as Old English hȳd (English hide), and Tocharian A kāc (“skin”), while Ancient Greek σκῦτος (skûtos, “leather”) and Old Prussian keuto (“skin”) show forms with initial *s-.^[2][3][4] Köbler gives Pokorny's root *(s)keu- “to cover”.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^[2][5] Cato speaks of hams with the skin facing down.^[3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was the skin of the body or a hide, ad cutem tondēre “to shave to the skin”, a flayed hide or leather, the thin skin of fruit, and any outer layer or surface.^[3] Horace's cutem cūrāre “to look after one's skin” meant to pamper oneself.^[7] Isidore explains it as the first part of the body to be cut.^[8]

Döderlein contrasts cutis, human skin, with tergus, the coarse hide of an animal, and pellis, a hide removed from the body.^[9] The diminutive cutīcula gave English cuticle.^[6] It survives in Italian cute and, through derivatives, in Italian cotenna (“pork rind”) and French couenne.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of hams with the skin facing down.^[3][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses cutem cūrāre.^[7][5]
• 1610s – English cuticle is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. skin, hide, ad cutem tondēre, to shave close.^[3]
2. A flayed hide, leather.^[3]
3. The skin, rind (of fruit).^[3]
4. An outer layer, surface.^[3]

Word family

• cutīcula
• cutītus
• dēcutiō
• intercus
• cutāneus
• lānicutis
• recutītus

Related words

• English cuticle
• English hide

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper