出典:Wiktionary
出典:『Wiktionary』 (2026/05/25 21:44 UTC 版)
Uncertain. Potentially from earlier *ph₁u-tós or *ph₂u-tós, alternatively from *puHtós if pretonic shortening ("Dybo's law") affected words of this shape (however, Schrijver argues that such shortening in Latin was likely restricted to cases where a liquid followed the vowel, citing invītus as counterevidence). Zair doubts that Schrijver is correct to distinguish between outcomes of preconsonantal *CHu- and *CuH-, arguing that *CHu- probably became *CuH- by metathesis already in Proto-Indo-European.
Based on the meaning of the derived verb putō, the original sense of the adjective is assumed to have been "cut" or "cut off". Schrijver proposes this developed along the lines of "pruned" > "cleansed" > "clean, pure".
putus (feminine puta, neuter putum); first/second-declension adjective (rare)
First/second-declension adjective.
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | neuter | masculine | feminine | neuter | ||
| nominative | putus | puta | putum | putī | putae | puta | |
| genitive | putī | putae | putī | putōrum | putārum | putōrum | |
| dative | putō | putae | putō | putīs | |||
| accusative | putum | putam | putum | putōs | putās | puta | |
| ablative | putō | putā | putō | putīs | |||
| vocative | pute | puta | putum | putī | putae | puta | |
Conjecture proposed by Joseph Scaliger in his edition of the Catalepton 7 (of disputed authorship; traditionally attributed to Virgil). Three manuscripts read "pothus" and the others read "potus"; accordingly, more recent editions read Pothus (“Desire”), i.e. personified Ancient Greek πόθος (póthos). If the conjecture is spurious, the term would be a ghost word.
If genuine, putus would match the base form of pusillus, putillus (see the former for details) as well as a number of Italic and Indo-European cognates. For this reason it has found a circulation in etymological works and is included as a headword by De Vaan. See Proto-Italic *putlos and Latin puer, pūsus, pullus.
putus m (genitive putī); second declension