Etymologically
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puppis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpʊp.pɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpup.pis][1]

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]
  • 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