septicus

Forms

sēpticus (feminine sēptica, neuter sēpticum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σηπτικός (sēptikós, “putrefactive”).^[1][2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder has it of remedies that cause flesh to decay: horse's blood, he says, eats away flesh septica vi, “by its putrefying power”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Latin it is a rare technical word of medicine, said of substances that are corrosive or cause putrefaction.^[2][3][5] Pliny uses it in several places in the Natural History.^[2][3] Through it English took the word septic around 1600, later used especially of infections.^[6]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of putrefactive remedies.^[2][4]
• c. 1600 – English borrows it as septic.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of medicaments) putrefactive, corrosive.^[2][3][5]

Usage notes

At one of Pliny's passages Jahn's edition reads smecticus instead.^[3]

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 e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com