Etymologically

podagricus

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

  1. Suffering from or subject to gout.[1][5]
  2. Relating to gout, gouty.[1][4]

Noun

  1. A person suffering from gout.[1][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ 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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