sputum

Forms

spūtum n (genitive spūtī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin spuō (“to spit”), the neuter of its perfect passive participle ⟨spūtus⟩ used as a noun.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces spuō back to Proto-Indo-European *sp(i)uH-ie/o- (“to spit”) and the participle to *sp(i)Huto- (“spat”), an onomatopoeic formation whose initial sounds were probably reshaped again by onomatopoeia.^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit ष्ठीवति (ṣṭhīvati, “to spit”), Ancient Greek πτύω (ptúō, “to spit”), Lithuanian spiáuti and Old English spīwan (“to spit”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Lucretius,^[4][5] who has it in the plural.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is spittle, in the singular in Celsus and Pliny the Elder and in the plural in Lucretius, Propertius, Petronius, Seneca and Martial.^[6][2] Martial also used it, by transfer, of a thin plate of metal.^[6] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense “spittle”.^[7] English borrowed it in the 1690s as a medical word for matter coughed up from the lungs.^[3]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses the plural.^[6][4][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses the singular.^[6]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius has the plural.^[6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it.^[6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of spittle and of a thin metal plate.^[6]
• 1690s – Borrowed into English as sputum.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Spittle, spit.^[2][6][7]
2. (transferred) A thin plate of metal.^[6]

Related words

• spuō
• spūtō
• exspuō
• respuō
• English sputum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson