putred

Forms

putred m or n (feminine singular putredă, masculine plural putrezi, feminine/neuter plural putrede)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin putridus (“rotten, decaying”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} formed on putreō (“to be rotten”).^[7][1] Among the Romance languages only Romanian has kept the Latin adjective.^[2][6]

South of the Danube it is Aromanian putrid and Megleno-Romanian putrid.^[2][8][9] The neologism putrid is its doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Moldavian personal name Putredul in 1505.^[10][5] MDA2's first record in a Romanian text is Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective describes organic matter, wood and fruit that has rotted, and things gone foul, such as stagnant water or festering wounds.^[4][3] Old medicine spoke of friguri putrede “putrid fever”, later used regionally for typhoid fever.^[11][3] The old language also used it for what is mortal and passing, and the modern language for morally corrupt people and regimes.^[3][4] As an intensifier it gives putred de bogat “rotten rich” and putred de copt “overripe”, and ploaie putredă is a long, fine autumn rain.^[4][5]

Derivatives include the verb putrezi “to rot”, and putrejune and putregai “rot, rotten wood”;^[2] Pușcariu took putregai from a Latin form, which Ciorănescu finds insufficient.^[2] In prison slang putred is a convict with a long sentence.^[12]

Timeline

• 1505 – Putredul, a Moldavian personal name.^[10][5]
• 1581 – putred in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3]
• 1649 – putred in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – pom putred “a corrupt tree” in the Bucharest Bible (Matthew 7:17).^[14]
• 1825 – putred and friguri potrede “putrid fever” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. rotten, putrid: decayed, in decomposition.^[4][3][1]
2. (of wounds and tissue) gangrenous, festering.^[4]
3. (of ponds and marshes) stagnant, foul-smelling.^[4][3]
4. (figurative) Morally decayed, corrupt.^[4][1]

Word family

• putrezi
• putregai
• putregăios
• putrejune
• putreziciune

Related words

• putrid
• Latin putridus

Usage notes

The masculine plural is putrezi.^[4] Set phrases: putred de bogat or bogat putred “extremely rich”, putred de copt “overripe”, and e ceva putred la mijloc (or în Danemarca) “something is wrong here”.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. putred
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 610
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 902
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. putred
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6877
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 901
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 243
10. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. putred
11. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 566
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. putred
13. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. putred
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Matthew 7:17