Etymology and origin of the Latin word podagricus
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 106–43 BC, Laberius
- Borrowed from
- Ancient Greek ποδαγρικός
- Ultimate origin
- Ancient Greek (ποδαγρικός)
Forms
podagricus (feminine podagrica, neuter podagricum); first and second declension[1] Some medieval manuscripts spell it podacricus.[2]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ποδαγρικός (podagrikós, “gouty”).[1][3][4] The grammarian Charisius says it is named from a disease of the feet.[2] The related noun is podagra, “gout”.[5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Köbler records it first in Laberius,[6] who uses it as a noun, “a gouty man”.[7]
Semantic evolution
It means suffering from gout,[1] as of people in Vitruvius[7] and in Seneca's remark that so many women are gouty and bald.[5][7] As a noun it is a gouty person, in Celsus and Petronius, who writes that the gouty curse their feet, as people with gout in the hands curse their hands.[5][8] Pliny the Elder uses it of ailments of the feet.[1] In medieval British Latin morbus podagricus is gout itself; a letter in the correspondence of Boniface in 743 speaks of a gouty humour.[4]
Timeline
- 106–43 BC – Laberius uses it as a noun.[7][6]
- c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of gouty people.[7][6]
- 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca writes of gouty women.[5][6]
- 743 – A letter in the Boniface correspondence uses it of a gouty humour.[4]
Meanings
Adjective
Noun
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
- ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Podagricus.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/podagricus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.
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