Etymologically
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putris

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpʊ.trɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpuː.tris][1]

Forms

putris (neuter putre); third-declension two-termination adjective[1] The masculine nominative is puter in Varro and putris elsewhere.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *putri- (“rotten”).[3] De Vaan lists it with pūs (“pus”) and pūteō (“to rot, stink”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“to rot”), and leaves open whether ⟨puter⟩ goes back to ⟨*pHu-tro/i-⟩ or ⟨*puH-tro/i-⟩: either way its short vowel is surprising.[3][2] A possible cognate is Old Irish othar (“sickness, sick man”); the root also gives Sanskrit पूति (pū́ti-, “foul, stinking”), Ancient Greek πύθομαι (púthomai, “to rot”) and Lithuanian pū́ti (“to rot”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus.[3] The OLD's first example is Varro's De re rustica, of a stake that rots where it meets the ground and falls over.[2]

Semantic evolution

Of organic matter it means “rotten, putrid, overripe”, of sores and pus (Celsus), of stale water (Columella), and contemptuously of the body, as Apuleius' “those rotten feet of yours”.[2] Horace uses it of eyes melting with desire.[2] Of buildings and other things it is “crumbling with age”, as Horace's crumbling shrine of Vacuna, and of soil or frost simply “crumbly, powdery”.[2][4]

Church Latin glosses it “rotten, mortifying”.[5]

Timeline

  • 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus.[3][6]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of a rotting stake and crumbly frost.[2][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of languishing eyes and a crumbling shrine.[2][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of foul pus.[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Rotten, putrid, decayed; foul; stale.[2][4][5]
  2. Of the eyes, languishing with desire.[2]
  3. Crumbling with age; crumbly, powdery, loose.[2][4]

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 k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de