putesco

Forms

pūtēscō (present infinitive pūtēscere, perfect active pūtuī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] It is also spelled ⟨pūtīscō⟩, as in Cicero.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin pūteō (“to stink, be rotten”) + -scō (“inchoative suffix”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of pūs (“pus”); he takes pūteō and its family to be built on an old past participle, Proto-Italic *pūto- (“rotten”), Proto-Indo-European *puH-to-, of the root *puH-.^[5] Cognate with Sanskrit पूयति (pū́yati, “to rot, stink”), Ancient Greek πύθομαι (púthomai, “to rot, decay”) and Lithuanian pū́ti (“to rot, decay”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato,^[5] whose farm manual warns that olives left too long on the ground will rot.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

It means to begin to rot or decay, to go bad, and of water to become foul and stagnant.^[2][6] Varro uses it of seeds that rot when the weather is unsuitable, Lucretius of the body rotting after death, and Horace of brine that has stunk in a Byzantine jar.^[6][3] Celsus calls hard water the kind that is slow to go foul,^[6][7] and Vitruvius uses the verb too.^[7] Varro also explains the puticulae, pits for the poor dead, as places where corpses rotted.^[6]

Cicero has the spelling putisceret,^[2][7] and the TLL notes that the word is often confused with forms of putr- in manuscripts.^[4] The TLL derives Italian putire, Old French puir, Provençal, Catalan and Old Spanish pudir from it or from pūteō.^[4]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of olives rotting on the ground.^[6][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of seeds rotting.^[6][8]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the body rotting after death.^[6][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of stinking brine.^[6][8]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of water going foul.^[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To begin to rot or decay, go bad, putrefy.^[2][3]
2. (of water) To become fetid and stagnant.^[2][6]

Word family

• computescō
• expūtescō
• reputesco

Related words

• pūteō
• pūs
• putrēscō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de