Etymologically
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pituita

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Forms

pītuīta f (genitive pītuītae); first declension[1] In Horace and Persius it scans as three syllables.[2][3]

Etymology

The etymology is unknown.[4][1] De Vaan considers the comparison of Walde, Hofmann, Ernout and Meillet with a Sanskrit tree name a guess.[4] A first part ⟨pītu-⟩ might belong to the root Proto-Indo-European *piH- (“to be fat, abound”), but this has neither morphological support nor an obvious meaning; it might also share a root with pīnus “pine”, as a resin-like substance.[4][2] Köbler places it under Pokorny's *peitu- (“fat, juice, drink”).[5] The TLL compares the formation of fortuītus and grātuītus.[6]

Lewis and Short connected it with spuō (“to spit”) and Ancient Greek πτύω (ptúō, “to spit”),[3] and Wiktionary suggests that it may be imitative.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cato,[4][5] meaning phlegm: in the De agri cultura a remedy “will drive out so much bile and phlegm” (tantum bilis pituitaeque eiciet).[2]

Semantic evolution

In medicine it is mucus or phlegm, and a cold in the head;[2][1] Celsus uses it of a morbid discharge, such as matter that collects in the corners of diseased eyes.[2] Pliny the Elder applies it to a disease of poultry, the pip, and to the sticky matter that oozes from trees.[2]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for phlegm.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it as a word of three syllables.[2][5]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it for a morbid discharge.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a poultry disease and of the ooze from trees.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Mucus, phlegm, catarrh; a head cold.[2][3][1]
  2. A disease of poultry, the pip.[2]
  3. A purulent or morbid discharge.[2]
  4. A viscous exudation from trees.[2]

Word family

  • pītuītāria
  • pītuītōsus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften