puppis

Forms

puppis f (genitive puppis); third declension^[1] The accusative is usually puppim, but puppem occurs in Ovid and Lucan.^[2][3] The ablative is usually puppī, with puppe sometimes in verse.^[2]

Etymology

De Vaan gives no etymology, and the OLD calls it doubtful.^[4][2] The TLL reports the view that sailors may have called a figure of a god set at the stern ⟨pupus⟩ or ⟨pupa⟩, and that the name then passed to the whole stern; but there is no evidence for this, and the double ⟨pp⟩ is no easier to explain.^[5] Pokorny compared Polish pupa (“bottom, rear”) and Ancient Greek πύματος (púmatos, “last”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *pu- related to Proto-Indo-European *apo (“away”), a link Wiktionary treats as uncertain.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4][6] The historian Sisenna writes of sterns covered with rags soaked in vinegar.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the stern or poop of a ship, where the helmsman stood, and it is often used in phrases of direction.^[2][3] By metonymy it meant the ship itself, a poetic use: Catullus has the Argonauts dare to run over the salt sea in a swift ship, and Quintilian notes that it is not a prose usage.^[2] Wiktionary also records a figurative use for a person's backside.^[1] Church Latin glosses it “stern of a ship, ship”.^[7]

Through Italian or Old Provençal poppa and Old French poupe it gave English poop “stern” (c. 1400); the constellation Puppis, a division of Argo, was named from it in the late 18th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[4][6]
• 120–67 BC – Sisenna of sterns.^[2][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of a ship.^[2][6]
• c. 1400 – English poop through French.^[8]
• late 18th century – the constellation Puppis.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The stern or poop of a ship.^[2][3][1][7]
2. (poetic) A ship, boat.^[2][1][7]
3. (figurative) The backside of a person.^[1]

Related words

• English poop

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com