putor

Forms

pūtor m (genitive pūtōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pūteō (“to rot, stink”) + -or.^[2][1][3] De Vaan thinks that pūteō and its family are probably based on an old past participle Proto-Italic *pūto- (“rotten”), Proto-Indo-European *puH-to-, of the root that also gives pūs (“pus”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit पूयति (pū́yati, “to rot, stink”), Ancient Greek πύθομαι (púthomai, “to rot, decay”) and Lithuanian pū́ti (“to rot, decay”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato, its first author, writes that cabbage will take away all rottenness, brassica omnem pūtōrem adimet.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant rottenness, usually with the foul smell that goes with it, and also the sodden, mucky state of soil.^[2][6] Varro explains the name of Puteoli by the stench of the place, which often reeked of sulphur and alum,^[2] and Lucretius uses it of earth soaked by rain, in which worms are born.^[3] Lewis and Short call it ante- and post-classical.^[7] The TLL finds it once each in Cato, Varro and Pliny the Elder, more often from Arnobius on, and fifteen times in Augustine; in verse only Lucretius has it.^[3] Manuscripts often confuse it with pudor.^[3]

In British Medieval Latin Aldhelm and William of Malmesbury use it of a stench, of sewers and of unburied corpses.^[8] It lives on in Romanian putoare and Catalan pudor.^[1][3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato says that cabbage takes away rottenness.^[3][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro explains the name of Puteoli by its stench.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of rain-soaked earth.^[3][5]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of a body decaying.^[3][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it fifteen times.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Rottenness, putridity, usually with a foul smell.^[2][7]
2. Muddiness or sodden state (of soil).^[2][3]
3. A foul smell, stench.^[2][7][8]

Related words

• pūteō
• pūs
• pūtidus
• puter

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press