Etymologically
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praeputium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [prae̯ˈpuː.ti.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [preˈput.t͡si.um][1]

Forms

praepūtium n (genitive praepūtiī or praepūtī); second declension[1]

Etymology

The first part is prae- (“in front”), so that the word names what lies at the front of the penis; the origin of the second part, the TLL says, has not yet been explained.[2][3] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny reconstruct an Old Latin *pūtos (“penis”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *pew- (“to blow (up)”).[1][4] De Vaan compares pustula, but finds the analysis as “what is at the front of the *pūt(o)-” uncertain, although naming the penis as “that which swells” is conceivable.[5]

Lewis and Short took it as a hybrid of ⟨prae-⟩ and Greek πόσθιον (pósthion).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Varro's Menippean satires, in a description of a god “round, … without a head, without a foreskin”;[2][4] Seneca quotes the line in the Apocolocyntosis to mock the Stoics' idea of god.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Juvenal uses it twice, once of the Jews' custom of circumcision.[2] It became common with the Latin Bible, from the Old Latin versions on,[2] where it is used of circumcision and, figuratively, in the call to circumcise the foreskin of the heart, that is, to put away impurity, which Lactantius also quotes.[6][7] In Ecclesiastical Latin it also meant the state of being uncircumcised.[8][6] The TLL notes that it is not found in the language of the physicians.[2]

Through Old French prepuce it is the source of English prepuce.[9]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it in his Menippean satires.[2][4]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca quotes Varro's line in the Apocolocyntosis.[2][7][4]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it, in the plural, of circumcision.[6][2][4]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it figuratively of the heart.[6][7][4]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of circumcision in Genesis.[6][7][4]
  • c. 1400 – English borrows it, through Old French, as prepuce.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The foreskin, prepuce.[3][6]
  2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Uncircumcision, the state of being uncircumcised.[8][6]
  3. (figurative) Impurity: praeputium cordis, “the foreskin of the heart”.[6][10]

Word family

  • praeputio
  • English prepuce

Usage notes

It is sometimes spelled praepudium in manuscripts.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.