Etymologically
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cutis

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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
  • 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