English
putrefy
Putrefy comes from Middle French putréfier, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *puH- ‘rotten, foul’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*puH-‘rotten, foul’root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600putréfier
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1597putrefy
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*puH-‘rotten, foul’root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600putréfier
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1597putrefy
Earliest quotation: c. 1597, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]: “They would but stink, and putrefy the air.”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *puH- ‘rotten, foul’
Today it means
verb To fester or rot and exude a fetid stench.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *puH- / putrefy