puter

Forms

puter or putris (feminine putris, neuter putre); third-declension three-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *putri- (“rotten”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *puH-tro- (“rotten”).^[2] De Vaan treats it with pūs “pus” and pūteō “to stink”; he notes that Schrijver hesitates between Proto-Indo-European *pHu-tro/i- and *puH-tro/i- as its source, and that the short vowel is surprising either way.^[2] The TLL finds the connection with the verb likely but notes that the vowels differ and the meanings diverge somewhat, so that a separate origin for the sense “withered, crumbly” cannot be ruled out; it leaves the question open.^[3]

A possible cognate is Old Irish othar (“sickness, sick man”).^[2][1] The root is also in Sanskrit पूति (pū́ti-, “foul, stinking”) and Ancient Greek πύον (púon, “pus”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus;^[2] the TLL cites a tragedy fragment of his with crumbly fields (arva putria).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In verse it occurs once each in Livius Andronicus and Varro and more often from Lucretius and Virgil on; in prose it is rare before Celsus and Seneca.^[3] It meant rotten or decomposed (of organic matter), purulent (of sores), stale (of water), and, of the body, diseased;^[4] Horace used it of eyes melting with desire.^[4] Of buildings and other things it meant crumbling with age, and of soil or stone friable, powdery.^[4]

The masculine nominative puter is found only in Varro; elsewhere the form is putris.^[4][3] The word lives on in Romance, as in podre and podre (both “rotten”),^[3][1] and English putrid goes back to its derivative putridus.^[5]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus speaks of crumbly fields.^[3][2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses the masculine puter of a rotting stake.^[4][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace calls a shrine of Vacuna crumbling and eyes languishing.^[4][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of foul, purulent discharge.^[4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of organic matter: rotten, putrid, overripe.^[4][7]
2. Of sores or their discharge: foul, purulent.^[4]
3. Of water: stale and fetid.^[4]
4. Of the body: rotten, diseased.^[4]
5. (figurative) Of a person or the eyes: languishing, melting with desire.^[4]
6. Of buildings and things: crumbling with age.^[4][7]
7. Of soil or stone: crumbly, friable, powdery.^[4]

Word family

• putreō
• putrefaciō

Related words

• pūs
• pūteō
• putridus
• English putrid

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press