Etymologically
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guttur

Etymology and origin of the Latin word guttur

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Confidence
Unknown
First attested
Naevius

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɡʊt.tʊr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɡut.tur][1]

Forms

guttur n (genitive gutturis); third declension[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown.[1] Its r-stem is hard to explain from any known Proto-Indo-European type, and the geminate ⟨tt⟩ either marks an expressive word or continues *gūtur.[2] De Vaan notes that gula, glūt- and gurguliō, also words for throat and swallowing, contain g(l)u-, and suggests it may belong to that family, which has no Proto-Indo-European etymology.[2][3] Pokorny connected Hittite kuttar- (“strength; back of the neck”) and Low German koder (“double chin”), which the OLD also compares.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius, and notes that it was masculine from Naevius to Varro.[2][4] Köbler dates Naevius c. 235–200 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant the throat and its passages, the gullet, often in poetry and in the plural.[4][6] It stood for the appetite, as Plautus' statue that would be a monument to someone's throat and Juvenal's example of great gluttony, for the crop of birds in Columella, and in Pliny the Elder for a swollen throat, a goitre.[4] In early Latin it was declined as a masculine, as gutturem in Plautus.[4][7] Döderlein says faux is the space inside the throat, while guttur is the throat itself.[8]

It survives in Romanian gât “neck”.[1] Through a Vulgar Latin *gutturiōnem and Old Provençal goitron it is the source of French goitre and English goitre, recorded in the 1620s, and English guttural was formed from it in the 1590s.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it as a masculine.[4][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the appetite.[4][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a goitre.[4][5]
  • 1590s – English guttural is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The throat, gullet.[4]
  2. The appetite, gluttony.[4]
  3. The crop (of birds).[4]
  4. A swollen throat, goitre.[4]

Word family

  • gutturnium
  • gula
  • faux
  • English guttural
  • English goitre

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
Cite this entry

“Guttur.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/guttur. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·