puteo

Forms

pūteō (present infinitive pūtēre); second conjugation, no perfect or supine stems^[1] The OLD records a perfect pūtuī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is related to pūs “pus”.^[2] According to de Vaan its probable source is a past participle, from Proto-Italic *pūto- (“rotten”), of the root Proto-Indo-European *puH-,^[4] and the TLL likewise holds that the old verb from that root was lost in Latin and replaced by a new one made from the participle.^[5]

Cognate with Sanskrit पूयति (pū́yati, “to rot, stink”), Ancient Greek πύθομαι (púthomai, “to rot, decay”) and Lithuanian pū́ti (“to rot, decay”),^[4] and with English foul.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it from Plautus on.^[4] In the Mostellaria damp timbers are said to stink, tigna ūmidē haec putent,^[6][3] though some editions read putrent there.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It means to rot so as to stink, and also simply to smell bad, without any idea of decay.^[2] Horace uses it of a boar or turbot gone off, and of poets who reek of wine in the daytime (mero putere diurno).^[7][3] Quintilian quotes Marcus Vestinus, who on hearing that a man had been killed said aliquandō dēsinet putēre, “at last he will stop stinking”,^[2] and in Juvenal perfumes and roses seem to stink.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of damp, rotting timbers.^[6][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in a fragment quoted by Nonius.^[7][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of spoiled food and of poets smelling of wine.^[2][7][8]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian quotes Vestinus' joke about a dead man.^[2][8]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal says that perfumes and roses seem to stink.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rot or decompose, so as to stink.^[2][7]
2. To smell bad, stink, without the idea of decay.^[2]

Word family

• pūtēfaciō
• pūtēscō
• pūtidus
• pūtor
• nariputens

Related words

• pūs
• puter
• English foul

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de