putreo

Forms

putreō (present infinitive putrēre, perfect active putruī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin puter (“rotten”) + -eō, a stative verb.^[2][3][1] The adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *putri- (“rotten”) and Proto-Indo-European *puH-tro- (“rotten”), from the root of pūs (“pus”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Pacuvius,^[4] meaning to be decaying with age: annisque et aetate hoc corpus putret “this body is decaying with years and age”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb is pre-classical: it is quoted from the tragedians Pacuvius and Accius,^[6][5] and later it is rare: the Latin Irenaeus uses it of a grain of wheat rotting in the earth.^[3] Grammarians recorded forms of the fourth conjugation, putriō, beside it.^[3] The common verb was its inchoative putrēscō.^[1]

Timeline

• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius uses it of a body decaying with age.^[3][7]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it in a similar line.^[5][7]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome has it in his version of Origen's homilies on Ezekiel.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be in a state of decay, be rotten.^[2][6]

Word family

• putrefaciō
• putrefio
• putrēscō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de